Bandits strike in three East Coast villages

-Coldingen man chopped in head

Bandits, armed with handguns and cutlasses, went on a 30-minute robbery spree in three East Coast Demerara villages on Saturday night, chopping one man in the head and wounding another who had come to his assistance.

The attacks took place in Annandale , Strathspey and Coldingen.

Jagdeo-in-NY  Indian-security-dilemma

According to reports, the first attack occurred at around 21:30 hrs at the home of Track ‘A', Coldingen resident Kishore Mohamed, who was cornered in his yard and chopped in the head and on the left hand.
Displaying his injuries, the 32-year-old DIPCON employee recalled that he had just arrived home from work and had filled a bucket when he realised that three men were in his yard.

“One of them say: ‘Don't holler, but I holler and he chop me on my hand,” Mohamed said.

When he grabbed the bandit's cutlass, the robber ordered his accomplices to “finish him off.”

Mohamed said that the other two men promptly began to chop him in the head, until he collapsed.

The robbers reportedly attempted to enter Mohamed's house but, fortunately, Mohamed's wife had heard her husband's screams and shut the door.

Kishore Mohamed's life was possibly saved by a neighbour, Walter Mohamed, who was passing at the time and came to his rescue.

“I hear Kishore holla and I run to he rescue,” Walter Mohamed said.

“The gate did lock up and by the time I push de gate fuh open it one of them (the robbers) pelt a chop and catch me pon me hand.”

The robbers eventually fled with $3,000 that they had taken from their first victim.

Kishore Mohamed was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was admitted.

Some 15 minutes after chopping and robbing Mohamed, two bandits, armed with a handgun and a cutlass, struck at Annandale .

Ishwari Jeffrey, 40, a businessman of 187 Droom Street , Annandale , was walking with a friend along the Annandale Market Road , at around 21:45 hrs, when two men attacked them.

The friend fled but the men relieved Jeffrey of $10,000 before escaping.

Police say that, at around 22:00 hrs, Hemraj Pooran, of Strathspey Line Top, was in a hammock in his yard when four men, armed with cutlasses and guns, pounced on him.

One of the bandits reportedly placed a cutlass to Pooran's neck and ordered him to tell his sister, Khempattie Pooran, to open the door.

When she did, the bandits barged in, held Khempattie at gunpoint, and relieved her of $50,000, two gold chains, two rings and two pairs of earrings, before fleeing.

According to a police press release, three suspects have been arrested.

There are reports that some of the robbers were in their teens.

Another resident said that the young bandits enter the villages during the day under the pretext of catching birds.

Monday 09-03-2007