Overseas residents robbed, terrorized at Canefield
-woman breaks hip after jumping through window
Stabroek News
December 12, 2006
Early yesterday morning masked gunmen stormed a home at Canefield, East Canje, Berbice, terrorized four overseas-based residents and made off with an undisclosed amount of local and foreign currency, jewellery and a Canadian passport.
Khemrai Sirkissoon, called `Chico', said his brother Clement of Canada and an uncle were sitting downstairs around 3 am when they heard loud tramping on the road. Before they realized what was happening four bandits, three of whom were masked, entered. Three of the men carried handguns, while the other bandit had a big gun.
The bandits tied up the two men under the house and gagged them with pieces of cloth. One of them kept guard downstairs. The other three then barged through the open door and ran upstairs where 11 occupants including a sister of the brothers from the USA, Shirley Bisnauth and two other brothers, Hardial and Tarachan and other relatives were.
Bisnauth panicked when she saw the bandits and jumped through the window. She landed on the concrete and broke her hip, according to a relative. She is now a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
According to reports, she was unable to move and was screaming but the bandits took her back upstairs where she handed over money and jewellery she had in her possession. The bandits menaced the other occupants and shouted "give us everything. Everyone got scared and started handing over their valuables," he said.
Khemrai said he was severely beaten by the bandits since he was unable to get his wallet containing his cash in time. He said it was locked in a drawer and in the confusion he could not find the key.
"The bandits started beating me. They wanted me to open the padlock with my fingers and because I couldn't do that they hit me with the gun in my head even more." He said eventually one of the bandits broke the padlock with his gun and grabbed the wallet containing US$1200.
Khemrai jokingly told Stabroek News that the bandits seemed to like chocolate since they ransacked baggage belonging to the others but only carted off his baggage which contained a quantity of chocolate, his Canadian passport and a valid driver's licence.
The man is deeply distressed over the stolen passport more than anything else. He is hoping that the bandits would at least drop it somewhere so he can pick it up. "I need my passport to get out of here," Khemrai who was treated at the New Amsterdam Hospital for injuries to his head, told this newspaper. (Shabna Ullah)