"They should have known. They should have known not to burn his body." These were the agonising and distraught words of Ismail Alli, whose brother Carrim, 35, was burnt to death while on a police investigation.
Pretoria crime intelligence unit member Captain Carrim Alli was found near his burning unmarked state vehicle on the Wallmannsthal road by a farmer on October 2.
Alli's attackers had allegedly doused him with paint thinners before setting him and his car alight.
Indications were that Alli, who had been receiving threats for nearly a month, had met an "informant" at Kolonnade Centre on the night he was attacked.
The "informant" is thought to have lured Alli to Wallmannsthal on the pretense of allegedly introducing him to someone who had information in connection with an investigation he was working on.
Once at Wallmannsthal he was attacked and set alight.
This was the second attempt on his life. Nearly three years ago he was shot through the arm during a drive-by shooting in Laudium.
Less than a week after Alli's murder, his close friends, Isa Mustapha Mohamed, 31, and Mustapha Amod, 42, were among three people arrested for their alleged role in the killing.
Mohamed is a police officer in Pretoria, while Amod, arrested at the weekend with Marthinus de Bruyn, 21, is the former station commissioner of Erasmia police station.
Amod, a devout Muslim, helped Mohamed convert to Islam which is why Mohamed has Mustapha as his middle name.
Speaking from Alli's Laudium home, Ismail and his sister Nseem said the family was shattered by what had happened.
"I can rationalise Alli being killed by an unknown person. What on earth possessed them to burn Alli, never mind kill him? If they did then they do not deserve to be Muslim," said Ismail.
According to the Islamic faith the dead must be buried, not cremated.
"This is one of the biggest insults that could be made against a Muslim family."
"The people who did this knew that they would be humiliating Carrim and his family by burning him," said an angry Ismail.
Ismail, who was with his brother when he died in Muelmed Hospital early on Sunday morning, said he worried about the safety of his family. "We are afraid of what might happen if they are granted bail, because if these people can do this to Alli then who knows what they can do to the rest of the family."
Ismail said Carrim, a former teacher at Laudium Secondary School and former secretary of the African National Congress Laudium branch, had been one of the most gentle people he had known.
"He would do anything for the community - from ensuring that children were safe from drugs to making sure a mother and father had enough money so that they could put food on their children's plates at night.
"It is just not right that something like this should happen. The people who did this must pay," he said.
Alli's sister said she could still not believe what had happened.
A memorial service will be held for Alli at the Pretoria West Police Training College chapel on Tuesday.
Events leading up to Carrim Alli's death
- Alli goes to Centurion and the city centre to meet several ANC members at 11am before returning home.
- Alli tells family at 5.30pm that he is taking his car to his brother-in-law, Rafiek Dawood, for repairs in Laudium.
- Alli returns home at 5.45pm and says he is going to meet a friend at Kolonnade Shopping Centre before going to Brooklyn for coffee with another group of friends.
- He never reaches Brooklyn. Instead he is found at 7.15pm on the Wallmannsthal Road next to his burning car by a farmer.
- He is rushed to Muelmed Hospital where he dies at 3am.