At separate meetings, they raised the early Saturday morning death of ex-soldier Shaka Blair, 33, at Buxton, East Coast Demerara, calling it a "heinous crime".

Minister Gajraj said the meeting with PNC/R executive members, Mr. Raphael Trotman and Ms. Deborah Backer was cordial and the discussions were very frank. Also at the meeting were Blair's siblings, Dziwonu and Rudo.

The minister told the Chronicle he promised to consider the concerns raised by the PNC/R about the Police Anti-Crime Unit, also known as the `Black Clothes Police'.

He said he also assured the PNC/R and Blair's brother and sister that the investigations into the circumstances of Blair's death will be done in the shortest possible time.

Just after midnight on Friday, Police said ranks visited Blair's home for questioning in connection with the spate of hijacking and robberies in and around Georgetown on April 1, last.

In the attempt to arrest him, Police said, Blair fired shots at the ranks and was consequently struck and pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital.

Police said Blair's fingerprints were found on vehicles hijacked by bandits to commit robberies that night.

Based on photographs supplied, Police said he was identified by the victims as one of the bandits who had committed "acts" of robberies and other criminal activities on the night.

Police said they recovered a .375 Smith and Wesson Magnum revolver, a quantity of live ammunition and spent shells and a live hand grenade from the scene.

But Blair's reputed wife Susan Ragnauth yesterday contradicted the Police version of the events.

At a news conference held by the Buxton/Foulis Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), she said she was awakened by loud banging on the door of their house. She said she reached for the telephone and called the Vigilance Police Station.

She said she spoke with the officer and handed the phone to Blair who told the Police that someone was kicking down the door and asked that Police be sent over.

Ragnauth said that at this point the door was flung open, one officer grabbed her two-year-old son Shakiem, and dragged her to a room in the house. She said she then heard three loud `bangs'.

She said that when she came out of the room, she found a vest spattered with blood on the floor with a hole, apparently from the gunshot Blair received.

She said, however, that when she went to identify Blair's body at the hospital she noticed two bullet wounds on the left side of his chest.

She also said Blair did not have a gun.

The PNC/R yesterday accused the Police of fabricating the explanation of Blair's death.

Trotman said Blair was a well-known community leader and activist in Buxton who earned his living as a mason, a small contractor and an operator of a hi-fi music system for hire.

The PNC/R said he gave "excellent leadership" to young people to work for the improvement of their village in a programme organised under the Depressed Communities Committee.

The Opposition party wants all allegations of "extra-judicial murders" to be reviewed and to make the findings known, leading to the prosecution of those responsible.

The party also named a senior officer of the Anti-Crime Squad and others that visited Blair's home and said they should be immediately arrested and charged with murder.

Some senior PNC/R officials were among a group of protesters outside Police headquarters yesterday.

At the NDC news conference, Buxton residents said they would seek audience with the appropriate authorities, including President Bharrat Jagdeo, on the matter.

Some claimed that on the night of April 1, Blair was operator of a bar at the seawall and was playing his music well into the night and could not have been in the city where the hijackings took place.

Police have been maintaining patrols in the Buxton area after violent incidents Saturday in which protesters attacked vehicles and seriously injured a driver who was hospitalised.

Police have up a road block warning vehicles not to proceed further on the Railway Embankment across which protesters dug a four-foot wide ditch Saturday.

The Railway Embankment road yesterday remained closed to vehicular traffic in the vicinity of Buxton.

In scenes reminiscent of the East Coast disturbances after the March 19 general elections last year, the ditch was dug across the Railway Embankment road in Buxton on Saturday, preventing vehicles from using it.

Police said criminal elements attacked and damaged several vehicles on Saturday and a driver, who was seriously injured in the head was hospitalised.

Traffic had to be diverted to the other East Coast main road and the ditch damage forced organisers to call off the 'Go Guyana Run' marathon scheduled along the Embankment Road for Sunday morning.

The Police have called on Buxton residents to "dissociate themselves from criminal elements and to adopt lawful means to address any perceived problems."

The Police Force Friday increased to $10M the reward for information leading to the capture of the five heavily armed and dangerous prisoners linked to the murder last Tuesday of top anti-crime cop, Superintendent Leon Fraser.

The five have also been implicated in the Easter Monday hijackings and robberies.

Police last week confirmed that the car hidden in the bushes from which Fraser was shot dead was the station wagon hijacked from a Canadian couple in the city around midnight Easter Monday.

According to Police, scientific tests have so far shown that at least one of the five escapees had been in the hijacked car found at Yarowkabra on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway where Fraser was killed.

Thousands of people from all walks of live turned out on Saturday to pay their last respects to Fraser at his funeral on the West Demerara.

The five escapees also killed Prison Officer, Troy Williams, 21, when they broke out of the Georgetown jail on February 23 and shot Woman Prison Officer, Roxanne Whinfield, 36, in the head as they fled. She remains in critical condition in the Georgetown Hospital.

Those on the run are Andrew Douglas, Mark Fraser, Shawn Brown, Troy Dick and Dale More, all linked to the notorious `Blackie' criminal gang.

The `Blackie' ring was led by Linden `Blackie' London who was shot dead when he was cornered in a Police-Army operation in an Eccles, East Bank Demerara guest house in February 1999.