Four human skulls wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil are seen during an inspection by the National Guard inside a package bound for the United States at a courier company located at the Queretaro Intercontinental airport, in Queretaro, Mexico in this photo distributed on December 30, 2022. File Photo
Seventeen human skulls buried in metal boxes have been unearthed in an underground chamber at a suspected shrine in the centre of Uganda, police told AFP on Tuesday.
Children foraging for firewood outside Kabanga village near Mpigi town, about 40 kilometres (24 miles) west of the capital Kampala, made the grisly discovery on Sunday, according to local residents.
Shocked and worried villagers told police there were metallic boxes containing what appeared to be skulls in an underground chamber beneath one of three ruined shrines on a sleepy hillside.
“We swiftly moved in and dug up the place, and so far we have recovered 17 human skulls,” regional police spokesman Majid Karim told AFP.
“We are conducting more excavations to ensure there are no more skulls other than what we have so far recovered,” he said.
He added that the remains, discovered in four boxes, were being examined to determine their age and sex, as well as when they may have been buried.
He urged the public to remain calm, with officers working to investigate the incident.
It is not clear how the skulls ended up at the site, located on a steep hill that has prevented the use of heavy machinery, slowing the search.
“Our worry (is) if police have recovered the skulls, where could the rest of the body parts be, like the legs, the hands?” father-of-four Mubumbi told AFP.
“We are shocked. We never expected this to happen in our neighbourhood,” he said.
Local media reported residents as saying that people had previously gathered at the location to worship.
Police said the suspected owner of the site is on the run, having been linked to a separate case involving the murder of a prominent traditional Baganda leader, entrepreneur Daniel Bbosa.
The killing in Kampala was reportedly carried out by hired gunmen as Bbosa returned home from work in February this year.
Mpigi district, although densely populated, remains semi-rural, with agriculture dominating local trade.
Coffee and bananas are the major cash crops and staple foods, and there is a major road linking the villages to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.
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