The Thugs were harried and hunted from one end of India to the other.

The government got all their secrets out of them; and also got the names of the members of the bands, and recorded them in a book, together with their birthplaces and places of residence.
The Thugs were worshipers of Bhowanee; and to this god they sacrificed anybody that came handy; but they kept the dead man's things themselves, for the god cared for nothing but the corpse.

Men were initiated into the sect with solemn ceremonies.

Then they were taught how to strangle a person with the sacred choke-cloth, but were not allowed to perform officially with it until after long practice.

No half-educated strangler could choke a man to death quickly enough to keep him from uttering a sound--a muffled scream, gurgle, gasp, moan, or something of the sort; but the expert's work was instantaneous: the cloth was whipped around the victim's neck, there was a sudden twist, and the head fell silently forward, the eyes starting from the sockets; and all was over.