At least 20 people, including six members of a family, were drugged and killed with batons and knives at a shrine allegedly by its “mentally ill” custodian and his associates in a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Sargodha Deputy Commissioner liaquat Ali Chatta said the incident took place at the dargah (shrine) of Muhammad Ali Gujjar in a village in Sargodha district, some 200 km from lahore, around Saturday midnight.
The shrine custodian 50-year-old Abdul Waheed, who was apparently suffering from a ‘critical mental disorder’, used a dagger and sticks to kill his victims, he said, adding Waheed had phoned the victims, telling them to come to the shrine.
Two women and as many men managed to escape, in an injured condition, from the shrine. One of them reported the crime to locals who then informed the police.
The injured have been shifted to hospital where their condition is stated to be critical. Chatha said it appeared that the caretakers of the dargah had first drugged the visitors, stripped them and then stabbed and clubbed 20 people, including three women, to death.
Citing a Doctor at Sargodha hospital, the Geo TV said the victims were murdered nude and the bodies bore multiple stab wounds and blunt weapons marks.
Police official Mazhar Shah said the motive behind the crime has not been ascertained yet but locals have said from last two years the suspect used to visit the area for ‘spiritual sessions’ with the disciples.
The shrine was built about two years ago on the grave of local religious leader Ali Mohamamd Gujjar. People will come to the dargah for “cleansing” their sins and allow the caretakers to beat them with clubs.
“But in this case the visitors were first drugged and then stabbed with daggers and hit with clubs, apparently during the cleansing process,” Chatha said.
He said the prime suspect, a resident of lahore, is an employee of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Chatta quoted Waheed as saying that he killed his disciples because, according to him, they poisoned his spiritual leader, Ali Muhammad, to death two years ago.