Pakistan is set to outlaw cannibalism following a gruesome case of two brothers who robbed graves to make ‘human curry’.
Despite several incidents, cannibalism is still legal under Pakistani law, but lawmakers have now filed a bill banning the exhuming of a corpse for consumption or ‘use for magical purposes’.
This comes after the re-arrest of convicted cannibal brothers Mohammad Arif Ali, 35, and Mohammad Farman Ali, 30, who allegedly dug up more than 100 corpses from the local graveyard in order to eat them, in April this year.
Two bills have been filed in the Pakistani National Assembly this week, banning exhuming a human body ‘with intent to cook, eat, sell or to use for magic purposes’ and making consumption of human flesh punishable.
Robbing graves for such purposes would see perpetrators facing a mandatory jail sentence of ten years to life, and at least seven for eating human flesh.
Earlier this year the Ali brothers were re-arrested after the head of a three-year-old boy was discovered in their home in the small town of Darya Khan in Bhakkar District in the Punjab.
The pair had previously served two years after police found that the corpse of a 24-year-old woman had disappeared from its grave in 2011.
Further investigations led officers to the brothers' house where they found a cooking pot containing meat curry.
At the time, local police said the two men had dug up more than 100 corpses from the local graveyard and eaten them.
District police chief, Ameer Abdullah, said officers swooped after residents complained of a bad smell coming from the brothers' home.
'Residents informed police after a stench emanated from the house of the two brothers,' he said.
Abdullah added: 'We raided the house on Monday morning and found the head of a young boy.’
By Sara Malm
