When seen by the Chronicle yesterday, Haroon Rasheid, 56, of 362 Section `B' Non Pariel Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, was sitting up in his bed in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

But he was still being fed intravenously and was complaining of burning sensations about his body.

Rasheid said that after suffering a stroke, he was visually impaired, but the experience he had on Wednesday morning took his vision completely.

It's a new and debilitating experience he's now grappling to come to terms with.

It's about becoming adjusted to knowing the difference between night and day, since at 17:00 hrs yesterday when the sun was still up, Haroon was thinking it was 20:00 hrs (8.00 p.m.), saying it was time for him to take his night's rest.

Rasheid shared his Non Pariel home with his wife Amina until the time of her death in an accident on the Melanie Damishana road last Saturday.

She was crossing the road when she was hit by a passing motorcycle and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

The couple had no children and kind-hearted neighbours have been visiting Rasheid in hospital and keeping the home now that he is hospitalised.

His wife was buried Wednesday while he was in hospital.

She was laid to rest, without him being able to bid her goodbye or pay his last respects.

Rasheid, who retired from the Georgetown Mayor and City Council after he suffered the stroke, was doused with kerosene and set alight when the armed gang struck at Non Pariel, terrorising several villagers.

In the ordeal he was robbed of $400 he had in his pocket, $7,000 he had in the house, and a television set, among other things.

Rasheid who had been having a difficult time trying to come to terms with the death of his wife of several years, was sitting in a very pensive mood on a chair under his house where the wake was being kept when the intruders struck.

Relatives said the bandits on a rampage in Non Pariel took Rasheid's home by storm.

At that hour there were only a few persons left at the wake, along with the incapacitated widower, and the terrified persons reportedly began running helter skelter, diving for cover.

The bandits, armed with weapons, reportedly called on Rasheid for money and jewellery and when he told them he was just a pensioner and had no money they became outraged.

Some barged upstairs and ransacked the house, taking away the television set and petty cash, among other things.

Others downstairs doused Rasheid with kerosene and set him ablaze.
Even as the clothing on the helpless man began to burn, witnesses said he sat in the chair unable to move because of his stroke.

After the intruders left the home those on the scene put the blaze out and rushed the badly burned Rasheid to hospital.