The Sargodha Anti-Terrorism court sentenced two brothers known as the Bhakkar cannibals to 12 year each in prison.

The two brothers were earlier sentenced for eating five corpses dug out from a graveyard of Darya Khan locality in the Bhakkar district, a region in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The brothers have once again been found involved in cannibalism.

On April 14, 2014, police raided the house of the two cannibal brothers and found a child’s body parts at their residence, whose horrific exploits sent a wave of fear and loathing through the residents of Darya Khan, a town in Bhakkar, and re-arrested Mohammad Arif while the other brother Mohammad Farman managed to escape easily but later was captured by police.

The two brothers, Arif, 35, and Farman, 30, from the small town of Darya Khan, had dug up more than 100 corpses from the local graveyard and eaten them in the past, police said.

Terrified by the return of the notorious cannibal brothers, the locals held protests and raised slogans against the district administration and the police.

They demanded that the brothers be kept in prison, and continued their protests for four hours despite the scorching heat.

Soon after the release of the brothers, panicked locals also started visiting the graves of their loved ones to make sure the brothers had not returned to their cannibalistic ways.

Taking note of the situation the Bhakkar District Coordination Officer, Mumtaz Hussain, ordered the re-arrest of the brothers under the Maintenance of Public Order, and Station House Office Saddar Qasim Nasoka started conducting raids to arrest the brothers.

Arif and his brother were sentenced to two years imprisonment after they were found engaged in cannibalism and were released only last year.

Farman and Arif were first arrested for cannibalism in 2011 and the town had attracted both national and international media coverage when on April 3 that year, the newly buried body of a girl was found in their house with a few limbs cooked in a curry.

It was reported that the brothers had dug up and devoured parts from close to 150 bodies before they were finally caught. They told the police that they have been eating the dead for the last 10 years.

Since Pakistan has no specific laws against cannibalism, they were originally arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order section of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), and were later charged under section 295-A of the PPC. They were sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined Rs. 50,000 each.

After the completion of their sentence, they were released from Mianwali’s district jail and returned to their homes, to the shock and outrage of residents.

Tayyab Baloch is an Islamabad-based multimedia journalist. He tweets at @blochjournalist. Read other articles by Tayyab.