Bhopal: All that Haji Mushtaq Khan needs for his daily work are some nails, a stone. And believe it or not, Khan runs a clinic.

Khan is a self-proclaimed medical practitioner in Bhopal who claims to cure his patients by hammering nails into his patients' bodies.

Any qualms of his being just another quack are dispelled immediately as you see people from various villages gathered at his clinic.

Ramesh Chandra, a patient's father, said his daughter felt better after Khan's unique treatment.

"For the treatment of my daughter's back problem I tried various hospitals without any success. Then finally I turned to him (Haji Mushtaq Khan) and now my daughter is feeling much better," said Chandra.

Khan claims that his brand of treatment purifies the blood, sorts out entangled veins and increases the body's resistance level.

For the past two years Khan has been using a huge nail, a stone and a piece of paper to treat his patients.

Khan says his treatment does not make miracles happen but merely helps the healing process.

"I have been treating my patients in this manner for the past two years. It does not entail any miracles. I free the entangled veins in the patients' body with the help of this stone and these nails, the sizes of which depends on whether the patient suffers from backache, leg problem or headache," Khan said.

The list of diseases that Khan claims to cure includes slip discs, cancer, spondilitis and cervical pain, among others.

A temple in Kerala also uses nails to cure patients of mental illness.

From time immemorial, mentally challenged women are taken to the Chottanikkara Devi temple in Cochin district, where they hammer a nail into a holy tree with their forehead to cure themselves.

ANI