Kampala - Peruvian police have rescued 86 members of a religious sect who were trying to commit collective suicide by starving themselves to death. The followers of the Quillabamba Pentecostal movement had begun a 40-day fast in a remote jungle region in the belief that the end of the world was approaching.
Alerted by worried relatives, police tracked down the sect members in an area known as Mesa Pelada after a six-hour search by foot through dense jungle in the Peruvian Andes.
Some of the cult followers attacked the policemen when they arrived. But most were already too weak to resist.
A policeman was quoted by the Peruvian newspaper Ojo as saying that "the fanatics were letting themselves die while praying and chanting". About 20 of the sect followers were immediately taken to the city of Quillabamba, where they are receiving medical treatment.
The others were scheduled to arrive in the town later on Tuesday (this morning), but most do not have a place to stay.
They had apparently been instructed to sell their property and land, and hand it over to sect leaders.
Relatives and friends said the followers of the Quillabamba Pentecostal movement had been deceived by Juan Quispe and Valentin Pena - who they accused of being the leaders of the sect.
Both men and some followers are now being questioned by the authorities. People have alerted the police about the existence of other sects that supposedly take advantage of illiterate peasants in the area.- BBC