Lying in a hospital bed with his teeth smashed and his body bruised, Rahmad could not understand how he was caught up in a wave of attacks on Muslims accused of witchcraft.
Two weeks ago, a mob dragged the screaming 21-year-old through the streets, accusing his family of dabbling in black magic and denouncing his father as an evil sorcerer."I don't understand why mobs wanted to attack us," he said from his bed. "My father is a Muslim and we are only poor peasants."
Rahmad, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, was alone in the house when the mob came. His family is said to have fled the village.
He is among a growing number of victims of such attacks as a string of eerie executions have occurred in recent months in Banyuwangi, about 500 miles east of the capital Jakarta.
Witnesses and police say machete-wielding gangs dressed in black have killed at least 153 people in nighttime raids. In scenes reminiscent of the Salem witch hunts, crowds have lynched suspected evil magicians.
On Monday, about 100 villagers attacked 55-year-old Haji Jajul bin Suhaemi outside a mosque in Serang, a small town about 75 miles west of Jakarta, the official Antara news agency reported.
Police said the crowd accused Jajul of being a sorcerer. Some wanted to test him by immersing him in a pool of water. Others couldn't wait and killed him with sticks and stones.
The surge in violence, which erupted as Indonesia grapples with political turmoil and the worst economic crisis in decades, has bewildered police and terrified villagers.
Looting and rioting that broke out after violent protests killed about 1,200 people and helped drive former President Suharto from office in May had usually targeted members of the mostly Christian or Buddhist ethnic Chinese minority.
The new violence, however, is plaguing Indonesia's Muslim majority. Amid the social confusion of the economic crisis, no one is sure who is doing the killing or why.