Ahmed Timol, born in 1941, had from an early age shown an interest in politics. His father, Haji Timil, was a close colleague of Yusuf Dadoo and some of the other Indian leaders who succeeded in transforming the Indian Congresses into powerful, progressive, militant national liberation movements.

Timol was a keen sportsman and popular teacher. In the late Sixties he left South Africa to further his studies. An avid reader, he studied with diligence and enthusiasm the Marxist-Leninist classics, progressive and revolutionary writings and was a model student at the Lenin School in Moscow.

A brave and courageous fighter, Timol returned to South Africa to help rebuild the underground structures of the revolutionary movement. In the course of carrying out his duties he was arrested on October 22, 1971. Five days later he was murdered in the notorious John Vorster Square police station in Johannesburg. His fingernails had been pulled out, his right eye gouged out and his testicles crushed. Timol`s murder caused a public outcry and his funeral was attended by thousands of mourners.

Issued by: SACP 65 Years in the Frontline Struggle