Pakistani Duo Are Accused of Cannibalism

A court in eastern Pakistan has extended the police custody of two brothers charged with cannibalism, officials say.

Arif Ali and Farman Ali were arrested earlier in the week. Police say they caught them making a meal of a corpse they had recently stolen from a grave.

The brothers’ alleged cannibalism was discovered after the body of a newly deceased woman was found to be missing from her grave in the city of Sargodha.

Her family then alerted the police.

“We have charged them under the anti-terrorism act,” Inspector Abdur Rahman of Darya Khan police told the BBC.

“They have been produced in court in Sargodha today.”

Both brothers are small scale landowners in the town of Darya Khan, located on the border of the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

‘No clear reason’

The family of the woman said to have been eaten became suspicious when they visited her grave a few days after she had been buried to find that it had been disturbed.

After digging to check the body was still there, they found it to be missing.

A police complaint was lodged – and the subsequent investigation led to the house of the brothers.

“They had cut a part of the corpse and were cooking it when we appeared on the scene,” a police official said.

The other remains of the 24-year-old, who died of cancer, were recovered from the brothers’ residence.

Police have not revealed any clear reason as to why the men are said to have resorted to cannibalism.

They say the pair appear to be in sound physical and mental condition and were living in seclusion with their sister, whose mental condition is said to be unstable.

The brothers have also allegedly admitted eating local dogs before turning to human meat.

Neighbours have expressed shock at the discovery, saying they never suspected that the two men could be involved in such acts.