A custodian of a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s Punjab province killed at least 20 people Saturday night, a district administration official said.

The attack occurred in Sargodha, and four women were among the dead. Thecustodian, Abdul Waheed, and four others were arrested.

Speaking with reporters, Deputy Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta said: “Abdul Waheed used a club and knife to kill these people visiting the shrine. He has confessed that he killed the victims.”

Chatta said that an injured woman who fled the scene told hospital staffers about the attack, prompting police action.

Waheed is said to be mentally unstable, Chatta said. The custodian is also said to have tortured worshipers in an apparent effort to heal them.

Killings have been reported during exorcism rituals at some shrines in the past, but such a mass killing would be unusual.

Millions of Pakistanis follow Sufism, a mystic branch of Islam overtaken recently by more conservative and hard-line versions of the faith. Militant groups, including the Islamic State, have carried out attacks on Sufi shrines, including a suicide blast in February in Sehwan, in Sindh province. The explosion, which targeted the famous Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, killed more than 70 people.

[WorldViews: An ISIS attack in Pakistan strikes at the beating heart of Sufism]

Pakistani news channels showed bewildered villagers standing in front of the shrine in Sargodha. News reports said police have started an investigation on orders from Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to televised reports, Waheed drugged the victims and then called them one by one to his room, where they were killed with a club and a knife.

An elderly woman, who was identified only as Kishwar and lay on a hospital bed with a deep cut on the left side of her face, told the news channel Dunya: “I don’t know what happened to the custodian of the shrine. He started beating and killing the devotees. He and some others . . . beat us badly with clubs.”

Read more:

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news