Horror at Sufi dargah in Pak: Mentally-ill caretaker kills 20

Police says the accused suspected the victims of poisoning his spiritual leader years ago

Lahore, April 2: At least 20 people, including six members of a family, were drugged and killed with batons and knives at a Sufi shrine, allegedly by its “mentally ill” custodian and his associates, in a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The incident took place at the dargah of Muhammad Ali Gujjar in Sargodha district, some 200 km from Lahore, at around midnight, the district’s deputy commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta said on Sunday.

The shrine’s custodian, 50-year-old Abdul Waheed was apparently suffering from a ‘critical mental disorder’, he said.

Mr Waheed rang up the victims and asked them to come to the shrine. He then used a dagger and sticks to kill them, Mr Chatta added.

Two men and two women, who managed to escape from the shrine in an injured condition, informed the villagers and the police were called.

Mr Chatha said that the caretakers of the dargah apparently drugged the visitors first, then stripped them before stabbing and clubbing them to death.

The victims included three women. Police official Mazhar Shah said that the motive behind the crime has not been ascertained yet but Mr Chatta quoted Mr Waheed as saying that he killed his disciples because, according to him, they poisoned his spiritual leader, Ali Muhammad, to death two years ago.

Mr Waheed told the police that had he not killed them, they would have poisoned him too, Geo TV reported.

One of the victims included the son of Waheed’s spiritual leader.