20 People Tortured and Murdered in Pakistan Shrine

A retired government official and now a custodian of a Sufi shrine has been arrested for torturing and then murdering at least 20 people near the city of Sargodha in Pakistan's Punjab province. Police found 20 bodies including four women bearing torture signs on Sunday morning.

Arrested was Abdul Waheed, former deputy director of the Punjab electoral commission, along with four other suspects. The bodies were found in a house adjacent to the shrine all naked and bearing multiple stab wounds. Pervaiz Haider, the physician who attended to the bodies, said most of the victims were hit on the back of the neck.

"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," Zulfiqar Hameed, the regional police chief, said.

One of the suspects confessed the plot to the custodian then summoned the victims.

"As they kept arriving, they were torturing and murdering them," said Liaqat Ali Chatta, government administrator of the area.

The shrine was built on the grave of Sufi religious leader Ali Mohammad Gujjar whom Waheed believed to have been poisoned by his disciples two years ago. He now fears they were planning to do the same to him.

"The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control of shrine," Hameed explained.

Police believe the killings began Friday night but were not reported until one of the female survivors sought treatment at Sargodha District Hospital on Sunday morning. At least three people escaped the religiously-inspired massacre.

"There are bruises and wounds inflicted by a club and dagger on the bodies of victims," Haider said.

Known for its ancient hypnotic rituals, Sufism is a mystical form of Islam that has been practiced in Pakistan for centuries. Chatta described Waheed as "mentally unstable" who was known for "beating and torturing" his followers regularly as a form of exorcism. There have been cases of devotees who died during the "cleansing" rites at some Sufi shrines across the country.