Lahore: Police officials in Pakistan's Punjab province have been accused of chopping off the left hands of two alleged thieves while they were in custody.

Police arrested Ghulam Mustafa, 30, and Liaquat Ali, 28, from Ghagoo Mandi in Vehari district of Punjab, some 340 kilometers from Lahore, last week in connection with cellphone and electric wire theft.

The police shifted both the accused on Friday evening to Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur where it emerged that their left hands had been chopped off.

Doctors said the chopped off wrist of one of the alleged thieves could have been attached with his arm through surgery but police brought the patient about 10 hours after the incident.