Pakistan interrogating suspects in horrific shrine slayings

By Abbey Westbury
April 03 2017 04:23 AM

CP1536788865 — Pakistani volunteers and local residents gather around the bodies of the victims, who were killed in a local shrine, outside the morgue of a hospital in Sarghodha, Pakistan, Sunday, April 2, 2017. Pakistani police say the custodian of the shrine and his accomplices have murdered 20 devotees in eastern Punjab province as part of a group cult ritual. A senior police officer said Sunday that the shrine custodian in a village near the city of Sargodha and four others were arrested for killing worshippers with batons and knives after intoxicating them. (AP Photo/M.I. Haq)

MULTAN, Pakistan – Pakistani police say an anti-terrorism court has given police three days to finish the interrogation of four men suspected in the killing of 20 devotees at a shrine in eastern Punjab province.

The custodian of a local shrine and his accomplices are said to have killed the 20 after intoxicating them amid a dispute over custodianship of the shrine.

Police officer Shamsher Joya says the four appeared before the court on Monday where Judge Zahid Iqbal extended their custody pending the investigation.

The killings took place in a village near the city of Sargodha. The shrine’s custodian, Abdul Waheed, and his four alleged accomplices drugged the 20 men and women on Saturday night at a house near the shrine. The victims were then beaten with batons and repeatedly stabbed.

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