A shrine custodian stabbed and clobbered devotees with clubs early Sunday, killing 20 people and injuring three others in southwestern Pakistan, authorities said.
Abdul Waheed lured some of the shrine’s devotees to the shrine in in Punjab province, where he drugged and stripped them before he killed them, said Liaqat Chattah, deputy police commissioner for Sargodha city, where the attack happened.
He used knives and clubs to attack the devotees before two men and two women fled the shrine and notified police, he said
Waheed was arrested, along with four other suspects, Chattah said. He described the suspect as mentally unstable.
The three people injured are hospitalized in critical condition.
An investigation is underway.
Sargodha is about 105 miles northwest of Lahore.
Shrines to various saints are scattered all over Pakistan, where they are considered places of meditation and refuge, where the homeless find shelter and alms are handed out.