Pilgrims at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti during Urs festival in Ajmer on Monday. Pic/PTI

Ajmer: A long-running family feud at the revered Ajmer sufi shrine culminated on Wednesday with the "sacking" of its spiritual head Syed Zainul Abedin, who was dubbed by his younger brother as an "apostate" for his "blasphemous" support to the ban on slaughter of bovines and selling beef in the country.

Abedin stood by his remarks opposing cow slaughter and said he was the "lifelong deewan" - the spiritual chief of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti mausoleum in Ajmer -- one of the most famous Muslim shrines visited by millions of devotees from across the sub-continent every year.