Durban - The family of beheaded cricket player Nawaaz Khan buried his head in Umzinto on Monday.
Nawaaz’s uncle, Haroon Sultan, said the family was devastated, but at the same time the burial had brought closure.
Sultan said a relative had identified the head on Monday, and the Muslim funeral services fetched it and gave it the traditional bath.
“We held a funeral service and prayer session as normal. The head went to his home for five minutes, as per his mother’s request. The head was buried alongside the body,” Sultan said.
The family did not exhume or open the body of Nawaaz, which was wrapped in a white sheet of cloth. Instead, they placed the head above the body.
Sultan said his niece, Zakia Khan, was in shock and a 10-day prayer would start on Tuesday.
Khan went missing on October 31.
His body was found in bushes near Gandhinagar suburb a week later.
Police arrested three suspects in connection with the murder. Khan’s head was retrieved on Tuesday in a gumtree plantation near Park Rynie, after the suspects pointed out where they had buried it.
Meanwhile, in court, a security guard believed to be implicated in Khan’s murder appeared in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Police spokesman Brigadier Jay Naicker said Mveliso Eric Nqini, 36, of Malangeni, had been charged with the murder of a woman who had also been beheaded. Nqini was remanded in police custody and is due in court on Monday.
On Friday, police arrested Nqini in the Umzinto CBD. He allegedly led police to bushes opposite Gandhinagar, where he pointed out the body of a woman.
“When questioned about the woman’s head, the suspect led police to another location in the vicinity where a plastic shopping bag containing decomposed, crushed bones was recovered.
“The plastic bag containing what is believed to be the remains of the victim’s head and the headless body were removed to the Park Rynie state mortuary,” Naicker said.
Daily News
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