SARGODHA: Abdul Waheed, the custodian of Ali Mohammad Shrine, who along with his aides planned and killed 20 people, have told the police that had he not killed them, they would have poisoned him.
The police have arrested the custodian along with his four close associates and shifted them to an undisclosed location for further interrogation. Waheed and his accomplices, wielding batons and knives, mercilessly killed the intoxicated victims after stripping them, police said.
"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," Regional Police Officer Zulfiqar Hameed told AFP.
"The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control of shrine," he said, adding that the investigation was continuing.
Pervaiz Haider, a doctor at the hospital, said most of the dead were hit on the back of the neck. "There are bruises and wounds inflicted by a club and dagger on the bodies of victims," he told media persons.
DC Sargodha told Geo News that main accused has claimed that he killed his devotees because they had poisoned his spiritual leader, Ali Muhammad, to death two years ago.
One of the victims included the son of Waheed's spiritual leader, said a family member of the deceased.
According to details given by an injured woman to the police at the GHQ hospital, Abdul Waheed called upon his followers one by one into his chamber and by offering them poisoned food, he killed them with sharp edge weapons and rods with the help of his companions.
She added that on making noise by the children who had seen through the doors, people attacked the murderers but they managed to flee.
The locals told the investigators that the custodian usually visited the shrine twice a month, where, he used to torture devotees by by setting them on fire, which he called the healing process. 'We heard people screaming whenever he was at the shrine.'
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a probe committee headed by DPO to investigate the incident and report within 24 hours. The chief minister also directed Punjab Auqaf Minister Saeed Qadri to visit the area to ascertain the facts.
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