ISLAMABAD: Twenty people were murdered and four others wounded at a Pakistani Sufi shrine early Sunday by men wielding batons and knives, police said. Four women were among those killed at the Shrine of Mohammad Ali in Punjab province, according to police, who said they had arrested three suspects including the shrine’s custodian. “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 chief Zulfiqar Hameed told AFP. There have been cases of people dying during exorcism ceremonies at some Sufi shrines across Pakistan, but mass killings are rare. Hardliners such as the Taliban or the Islamic State group have carried out major attacks on Sufi shrines because they consider them heretical.

Source: Manila Times April 02, 2017 06:45 UTC