Nazdin: the young dhol player who died in Hamdaniya tragedy

HAMDANIYA, Iraq - Nazdin Khazwan was playing the dhol when a wedding fire in the Iraqi northern town of Hamdaniya killed him and over a hundred of others earlier this week.

The groom of the wedding had exclusively requested Nazdin for his wedding. But when the fiery roof of banquet hall caved in he caught fire and was never seen again. 

"He told me that a fire had broken out. I looked at the stage and saw him burning. I asked him to leave [the hall]. He followed me to the exit. He told me ‘Come Daddy’ and I saw him running towards the kitchen door," his father, Khazwan Sulaiman, told Rudaw on Thursday.  

"I saw him until he reached the kitchen door. Sulaiman was behind me and asked where Nazdin was. I told him that Nazdin had exited because he was in front of me and I saw him. We went out but did not find him," he added. 

Nazdin, 12, accompanied his father to weddings for three years. The Yazidi boy was studying in the sixth grade. 

His friends said everyone in his neighborhood loved him.

"We loved Nazdin. We were friends for two years. We played football and never fought. The news of his death has really made us heartbroken," said Rami Rasheed, one of Nazdin's friends.