Police in Tamale have commenced investigations into the mysterious of death of a woman believed to be in her early 20s at Dungu, off the Bolgatanga road, in the early hours of Wednesday. The body of the light-skinned woman, initially suspected to be a foreigner, was found by some taxi drivers, with her nose and parts of her tongue slashed. The missing body parts, according to security personnel, gave concern that she might have been mistaken for an albino and murdered for ritual purposes by her assailants. An inspection of the scene did not suggest she was involved in an accident but police claimed she might have been killed and dumped by at night, as if she was involved in an accident. Her cell-phone and other belongings were scattered around the scene at the time the police arrived but the body showed she had sustained bruises on the thighs and toes, suggesting she might have also been dragged by her captors to where the body was found. At the time of filing this report, police had conveyed the body to the Tamale Teaching Hospital for autopsy. The news of her death has sparked fear among foreign tourists in the region who feel insecure within the Tamale metropolis. Though speculations were initially rife that the victim was a foreigner, later investigations discounted earlier media reports that the victim, identified as Mariam, was an American. According to the police, she was a Fulani from Niger and was being taken from Gonokrom in the Western Region to forcibly marry a man she did not love. The police believed that Mariam might have committed suicide. They said the deceased and her father had left Gonokrom on Tuesday, arriving in Tamale in the night, when she allegedly jumped from the truck on which they were traveling, to her death. DSP Maama Arhin, Northern Regional Crime Officer, said the deceased was a student in Ivory Coast but her parents wanted to take her out of school and marry her off. DSP Arhin said his office had been inundated with calls from several embassies due to an earlier report made by a local radio station in Tamale that the girl was of Asian or Caucasian origin because of her fair complexion. The mystery surrounding her death reignited concerns raised by one-time Imam in the Ghana Armed Forces, Sheikh Salawati Imam Rashid, about how some politicians in the country buried a number of albinos and children alive, in their quest for political power. The spirits of these per­sons would continue to haunt the country in the form of road accidents and other calamities unless a spiritual atonement was sought, said the Islamic cleric. Albinos in parts of the country, months ago, under the auspices of the Society of Albinos-Ghana (SOA-G), organized a press conference, during which they expressed apprehension about their pre­carious situation, having become ritualistic materials for money and power seekers.