Advertisement

Second Brother Held Over 'Pakistan Cannabilism'

Second Brother Held Over 'Pakistan Cannabilism'

Pakistani police have arrested a second man suspected of eating a newborn baby whose head was found at their home.

Farman Ali, 30, was detained a day after police arrested his brother, Mohammad Arif, 35, following the grisly discovery at their house in a remote district in Punjab province.

Officers were alerted after neighbours complained of a foul smell coming from the property.

Arif has admitted he and Farman cooked and ate the dead body after his brother stole the corpse from a cemetery, according to police.

The pair, who live in the small town of Darya Khan in central Pakistan, around 180 miles (300km) south of the capital Islamabad, had previously served two years in jail for cannibalism in a case that shocked the country.

Police said the brothers, arrested in 2011, had dug up more than 100 corpses from the local graveyard and eaten them.

They were only released last year.

District police chief Ameer Abdullah said as he revealed news of the first arrest: "Residents informed police after a stench emanated from the house of the two brothers.

"We raided the house on Monday morning and found the head of a young boy."

Police said that the men's wives and family members had left them some years ago and both were living in the house in isolation.

The suspects will undergo psychiatric tests, the police chief said.

There is no specific law against cannibalism in Pakistan so, as in the 2011 case, Arif has been charged with desecrating a dead body and public order offences.

In the previous case, police found the body of a 24-year-old woman who had recently died of cancer at the men's house. She was without a leg, which the brothers had eaten.