Muslim murders: Four men held
2003-03-10 22:06
Johannesburg - Four Pakistani men are being held in connection with the killing of two Muslim women whose bodies were found on the same busy road in Johannesburg on different days last week, police said on Monday.
Police spokesperson Captain Mbazima Shiburi said two men were arrested at the weekend by the Johannesburg police's Serious and Violent Crimes Unit soon after the recovery of the women's bodies.
The men, aged 22 and 24, were apprehended at a block of flats in central Johannesburg and they appeared in the Soweto magistrate's court on Monday.
Shiburi said police confiscated an unlicensed firearm from one of the men who was positively linked to the killing. The other man was apprehended for possession of an illegal firearm.
Western Cape police spokesperson Andre Traut said two other men, both in their 20s, were arrested in Cape Town on Monday afternoon. This was after one of the men arrested in Johannesburg told police that their two alleged accomplices had fled to Cape Town.
The two were arrested around 14:00 on Monday in Rylands in Athlone and a possible murder weapon - a 7.65mm pistol - was recovered from them. A vehicle registered in Swaziland was also seized.
The pair would appear in the Athlone magistrate's court on Wednesday and would then be transferred to Johannesburg to face trial with the other two.
Traditional Muslim dress
The women, who were from Maputo in Mozambique, were found on the side of the Old Potchefstroom Road in Lenasia. An eight-year-old girl was found lying alongside one of the women who was believed to be her mother. The girl had gunshot wounds to her back.
Traut said the Cape Town police launched a manhunt on Saturday and after a number of leads, two men fitting the identities of those sought were apprehended.
Earlier on Monday, Johannesburg police spokesperson Captain Mbazima Shiburi said the two women had not yet been identified.
The girl was still being treated in the Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital in Soweto.
"She is keeping well," Shiburi said.
He said police had taken a statement from the girl and were following up several leads.
The women, who were sisters, were dressed in long, traditional Muslim dresses, with only their eyes showing, when they were shot.
The first body was found on the Lenasia offramp from the Old Potchefstroom Road near the Avalon cemetery last Monday night.
Lying next to her was the unconscious girl, who had been shot in the back.
The body of the other woman, who had also been shot, was found four kilometres away along the same road.
- SAPA