Pakistani cannibal re-arrested after baby’s head found at home

- A Pakistani man has been arrested on suspicion of cannibalism after the head of a newborn baby was found at his home, police said on Monday, years after he and his brother admitted to eating at least five corpses they had dug up from a graveyard.

Mohammad Arif, 35, was arrested on Monday morning when officers carried out a raid at his residence in the Darya Khan locality of Bhakkar district in Punjab province. The raid took place after neighbors complained to police about a "stench" emanating from the house, where Arif lives with his 30-year-old brother Mohammad Farman.

Officers searching the residence discovered the head of a newborn baby and Arif admitted to eating the child's flesh after his brother allegedly took the body from a nearby graveyard, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. An arrest warrant was issued for Farman, who fled the scene.

The brothers were first arrested in April 2011 after relatives of a 24-year-old woman who died of throat cancer found her grave had been disturbed, only a day after the woman's burial. A police investigation led to the house of the brothers, where officers found the brothers had eaten parts of the woman's legs.

Arif and Farman later confessed to eating at least five corpses they had dug up from a local graveyard, but investigators believe the true number was likely between 100 and 150. However, because Pakistan has no laws on cannibalism, the brothers were sentenced to only two years of imprisonment on charges relating to the desecration of graves.

The release of Arif and Farman sparked local protests in May 2013, but calm was quickly restored and the brothers continued their lives in isolation, away from other villagers. The wives and family members of the men had left them after their arrest. In an interview with the BBC in August 2013, Ali expressed hope that their acts of cannibalism "will not happen again."  WireUpdate