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Kandhai wore white shirt
Zulfikar Mustapha, a newly-elected member of the PPP central committee, was driving PHH 1332, an open back 4X4 vehicle registered to the party. In the vehicle were Kandhai, acting Mayor of Rose Hall, William Hendrax, and about seven women. He was taking Kandhai to the place where he was to spend the night. Kandhai, 17, was from Golden Fleece Essequibo.
According to sources, Mustapha had just passed the old Apollo Cinema, as he was on his way to Albion. He was on his cellular phone, when he heard a sound like a firecracker, “a single crack.”
He then heard a thud, like something had fallen on the tray (back) of the vehicle and women screaming. Sources say he realised in that split second that it was a gunshot and not a firecracker and accelerated immediately, driving towards the Albion Police Station. Almost simultaneously, several other shots were fired.
On the way to Albion, he said, they passed two police cars going towards Rose Hall, but he did not stop them. On arrival at the station they reported what had happened and were told that news was already received that something was wrong at Rose Hall. It was at the station that he learnt that Kandhai had been shot in the head. “A single shot. There was blood all over.”
Hendrax told Stabroek News that when the single shot hit the lad, he fell on him and his entire body was covered with blood. He said that everyone immediately lay flat in the back of the vehicle.
The acting mayor said he felt it was something that was well planned, as “the first shot was fired when our vehicle approached. It was surprising, knowing that the President was around that Rose Hall had no kind of security in the area and no patrol.”
Hendrax said that what the attack had shown was that there was no way Rose Hall could defend itself, since there was no type of security in the town. He said that the town was at the mercy of bandits, since even the town constables had no weapons.
Ambushed
Sources say Mustapha felt that had they stopped, the other shots would have wiped out everyone in the vehicle. “The one shot which was aimed at Kandhai was maybe because he was wearing a white t-shirt and could have been seen,” Mustapha said.
Kandhai had only recently secured a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba.
Meanwhile, several vehicles had arrived at the Albion Police Station compound and reported being fired upon while driving through Rose Hall. Ranks from the Target Special Squad responded.
At a press conference called after the siege on Monday, acting Police Commissioner Floyd McDonald said that the police who responded to the siege were under-prepared. He said they had based their response on a report that there was an isolated robbery taking place at a Chinese restaurant. One of the policemen killed in the siege, Constable Kissoon, who was stationed at Whim, was responding to the same report. He said it was during the exchange with the bandits that Kissoon was shot in the head and killed.
Hang Feng, owner of the Jeng Fu Chinese Restaurant told Stabroek News yesterday that Constable Chaitram visited his restaurant at around 11:30 pm and told him he was wanted at the outpost because of a noise nuisance. Chaitram took him across there and he saw five armed men, who he thought were police.
But they pointed their guns at him and told him to take off his chain and empty his pockets and if he shouted they would kill him. He said he did as he was told and one of the bandits remained with him at the outpost while the others took both policemen to the restaurant. They then robbed the restaurant, employees and customers.
One had dreadlocks
Feng said the men were dressed in bulletproof vests and short pants, and one, who was about 5’7” had dreadlocks. The others were heavily built and taller.
They returned to the station with the two policemen, Feng said, and locked him and Chaitram in the cell. They then robbed Pardat of all his jewellery and left with him. Feng said he and the policeman removed a board from the cell and were able to escape. The next morning they found a police shirt that they suspected belonged to Pardat, behind the police outpost. Pardat was later found dead at the pump station, not far from the foreshore. While the drama was unfolding at the police station and Chinese restaurant, reports indicate, some of the gunmen used chainsaws to gain access into the homes of two businessmen. Reports claimed that others lined up Pardat and three guards, who had been taken hostage from their posts at the National Bank of Industry and Commerce and GNCB, then marched them to the foreshore and ordered them to lie face down on the ground. After enquiring the distance to the sea, the three bank guards were ordered to run and Pardat was shot and killed.
Pardat’s widow Tarmattee said that neighbours told her they had seen Pardat being escorted by the bandits, who asked him where he lived. He was heard giving them wrong directions. She thinks that because he gave them wrong directions he was executed.
Yesterday Tarmattee visited the scene where her husband was killed and then went to the mortuary, where she came to grips with the fact that her husband had died.
A post-mortem will be performed today, she said and his funeral will be on Friday.
Kissoon’s wife told Stabroek News yesterday that his post-mortem was done on Monday, and he had received one shot to the back of his head, one in his left leg and a third on one of his fingers. His funeral will be held next week. The bandits seemed to have escaped by boat, but army officials claimed that the GDF helicopter patrolled the Atlantic coastline for some time after receiving reports of the siege, and did not see any suspicious boats. The GDF Coast Guard has a base several miles east of Rose Hall.
Meanwhile, the police have one man under guard at a Berbice hospital. They are checking out his story that he had travelled from the city to visit an uncle in New Amsterdam, who he was later to meet at Rose Hall.
And arrangements are being made to beef up security in Berbice. Fifteen members of an elite squad arrived in the Ancient County on Monday, according to reports and today another set was expected.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Afiz’s store was open for business yesterday and the family is coming to grips with the events.
Afiz’s brother, Mohamed Shaik Hoosein and his wife Uma, were still in hospital yesterday. The wife had five stitches on the head where she was hit and she is suffering from a pain from the back of her neck. Hoosein has eight stitches and also has pains in his body. They are to be discharged today.