ISLAMABAD: The custodian of a shrine in Sargodha and his two accomplices have been arrested for torturing and murdering 20 devotees with knives and clubs early Sunday.
Four women were among those killed in the attacks at the Sufi shrine of Muhammad Ali in Sargodha. Victims were apparently given intoxicants before being slaughtered and some of the bodies were nude.
The motive was unclear but police officials said the chief suspect had mental health problems and had used violence on followers before.
“The 50-year-old shrine custodian, Abdul Waheed, has confessed that he killed these people because he feared that they had come to kill him,” Sargodha RPO Zulfiqar Hameed said.
Another local government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Waheed had told police that the saint buried at the shrine had been poisoned and he feared that his victims might kill him also.
“The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control of shrine,” Hameed said, adding that the investigation into the killings was continuing.
SHO Shamshir Joya said the victims, whose clothes were torn and bloodstained, appeared to have been given intoxicants.
“We suspect that the victims had been given some intoxicants before they were murdered, but we will wait for a forensics report to confirm this suspicion,” he added.
“The victims were brutally tortured to death and apparently the clothes of some victims were torn off during it,” he said. Six of the dead were from the same family.
Joya said the shrine was built some two and a half years ago. Waheed — a one-time employee of the Election Commission — took it over upon completion.
Local rescue service official Mazhar Shah said Waheed used to meet devotees once or twice a month and used violence to “heal” them.
“Local people say that Waheed used to beat the visitors who came to him for treatment of various physical or spiritual ailments,” Shah told reporters in televised comments.
“Sometimes he would remove the clothes of his visitors and burn them.” Television footage showed scattered shoes, clothes, sheets and cots in the yard of the white-painted domed shrine as police vehicles and police commandos surrounded the premises, sited amid green farmland.
Sargodha Deputy Commissioner (DC) Liaquat Ali Chattha claimed that Waheed, believed to be a resident of Lahore, was a one-time employee of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The attack was reported by an injured woman who arrived at District Hospital Sargodha, DC Chatta said, adding that she was one of four survivors who managed to flee from the scene of the crime.
Acting on the information, a heavy contingent of police rushed to the shrine and arrested Waheed and his alleged accomplices, he said.
Chatta said that the shrine custodian seemed “mentally unstable.” He added that the custodian was allegedly in the practice of “beating and torturing” devotees to “cleanse” them.
Quoting the survivor, the deputy commissioner alleged that the custodian had contacted devotees via telephone and summoned them to his room one by one. He claimed that the custodian had offered an intoxicating substance to his victims before removing their clothes and stabbing and beating them to death.
Among the victims eleven persons belonged to Sargodha, two from Islamabad, two from Layyah, one from Mianwali and Pir Mahal respectively. Police have identified 17 bodies.
The doctors at the hospital said there were bruises and torture marks on the victims’ legs and back. The doctors further added that the victims were tortured in intoxicated condition.
Minister for Religious Affairs Zaeem Qadri said intelligence agencies along with police and the local government were investigating all aspects of the case.
Qadri said his department managed some 552 shrines in the province, but this one was not registered with it.
“Investigators will also look into how this shrine was allowed to be set up on private land,” he said.
The Punjab chief minister has announced that Rs0.5 million will be given in compensation to the families of those who were killed in the attack, whereas compensation of Rs0.2 million will be given to the injured.
