A barber in rural Pakistan was left fighting for his life after being horrifically mutilated over a relationship with a married woman from an influential local family, police said on Thursday.
Officers said Yousaf Khan, 32, was kidnapped by seven members of a landowning family who gouged his eyes out with a knife before cutting off his ears, nose, lips and tongue.
The bloody incident took place in Mirzapur village in Okara district, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Lahore, the main city of Pakistan's central Punjab province.
"Yousaf Khan was blamed for an illicit relationship with a woman. We have arrested five culprits," Khaliq Riaz, a police officer involved in the investigation, told AFP by telephone.
Riaz said he hoped a man and a woman, also involved in the grisly incident would soon be arrested.
"The family said they had several times warned Yousaf over the illicit relations and they were forced to take this extreme step to punish the barber," Riaz said.
Sanaullah, an officer in the district police chief's office who goes by only one name, confirmed the incident and arrests.
Khan was later taken to a local hospital where doctors were battling to save his life, police said.