The police arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in the Shah Faisal colony of Karachi, and recovered the bowl of flesh she planned to cook, said police chief for the area Nadeem Baig.

"They killed Ahmed Abbas, Zainab's husband, and chopped his body into pieces and were about to cook the flesh in a bowl," he told AFP, adding that the knife with which they killed the man had been recovered. Television networks showed gruesome footage of the human flesh in a bowl ready for the stove.

A neighbour had alerted the police and investigations were ongoing, said Baig.

"There could be two factors behind her intention to cook the husband. One is to destroy the evidence and the other could be her immense hatred against him," over his plan to marry another woman, he said.

According to family law, a man has get permission from his first wife before his second marriage, but the law is rarely observed.