Two brothers arrested for the second time over accusations of cannibalism appeared in court Tuesday, police officials said, in a sensational case that has horrified Pakistanis, according to CNN.
A judge in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha district ordered the men detained for a week pending an initial investigation, police officer Zafar Iqbal said, CNN reported.
They were arrested on Monday on suspicion of eating bodies they had dug up in a nearby graveyard, according to CNN.
Police also recovered a pan they believe was used to cook the body parts, said officer Waseem Abass, CNN reported.
Police raided the brothers' house in central Pakistan after neighbors complained of a horrible stench, according to CNN. Some neighbors also grew suspicious after seeing one of the men in the graveyard, police said.
Authorities found body parts including a skull that may have belonged to a child in the house and detained one of them, CNN reported. The second brother was arrested later on Monday, following a search of the area.
When authorities went to investigate, they discovered the decapitated head of an infant next to a burning stove, according to CNN. The head is now being examined at a hospital in the nearby village of Darya Khan and looked to be around five days old, authorities reported.
Police have sent the body parts to a lab for further testing, according to CNN. The men were previously imprisoned for two years on charges related to digging up bodies, cooking and eating them in 2011 and were released last summer.
Under Pakistani law cannibalism is not a crime so the men had been charged with, and were convicted of, dehumanizing a body, CNN reported.
