-residents nervy

The body of the businessman, who was ambushed and killed along the UNAMCO trail on Tuesday, was riddled with bullet holes, with at least three large wounds that appeared to have been fired at close range.

Thakur Persaud

His two employees, who were with him at the time, escaped injury and are currently in police custody assisting with investigations.

Police found the body of Thakur Persaud of Old Road, Sara Johanna, East Bank Demerara approximately 90 miles up the UNAMCO trail in a clump of bushes just off the road, Stabroek News was told. According to reports a team of police officers left Linden shortly after 11 pm on Tuesday and returned with the body just after 4 pm yesterday.

Persaud and his two employees Ravi Deobarran and Solomon Low-A-Chee were in a pick-up BKK 8654, heading to a mining operation some 50 to 60 miles up the Berbice River from Kwakwani when they stopped to move a fallen tree from their path. They came under gunfire and the two employees managed to escape. They ran into the forest and returned hours later to find Persaud’s body outside the vehicle. Leaving the body where it was, they drove to the Kwakwani Police Station and reported the incident.

One of the bullet holes

Yesterday afternoon Persaud’s relatives were gathered at the Linden Hospital Complex when police arrived with the body. One sister, weeping bitterly, was heard saying, “Why dey had to treat he so? Dey leff he deh? Ow!”

One man, who said he was the victim’s cousin-in-law, said that from all indications Persaud and the others were victims of an attempted robbery. He refused to comment further when asked if he was aware of what, if anything, was taken from the vehicle or from the person of Persaud.

The pick-up with the two employees yesterday

Sources told this newspaper that Persaud had been riddled with bullets from high-powered guns. Most could not be seen because the body was covered with a mass of flies. However, there were three large bullet wounds, apparently inflicted at close range: one on the lower left leg; one on the upper left arm and one on the right wrist. No bullet holes were visible at the front of his bloodstained white t-shirt, nor his black and white stripped three-quarter pants.

Bullet indentations on the windscreen

Persaud’s two employees, Deobarran and Low-A-Chee, were also at the Linden Hospital. One of them was wearing a pair of surgical gloves and was assisting in taking Persaud’s body out of the ill-fated pick-up, which was driven by the other man and was used to transport him out of the area.

The two men were under heavy police guard and were later escorted to the Mackenzie Police Station where they were taken into custody.

Persaud’s pick-up had three bullet holes to the windshield, two on the left side of the tray and two on the right front side close to the driver’s window. It was driven off to the police station by one of Persaud’s employees under police guard.

Stabroek News understands that police searched the area extensively but found no one.

Totally unexpected

When Stabroek News visited the Lot K Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home of the deceased yesterday morning, family members and friends had gathered.

The man’s wife, who gave her name as Devi, told this newspaper that the death was totally unexpected. “He didn’t have any problems with anyone”, she said.

She explained that her husband owned a dredge in the area and would travel to the area from time to time. “Sometimes he would go once a two week, or sometimes he would go up every week or so”, she said.  “He never mentioned anything about being attacked before”, she told this newspaper.

According to her, Persaud had planned on leaving on Sunday night but left on Monday evening instead. “He left about 11 the Monday night and he told me he was going to arrive around 5 de morning.  He was supposed to come back around 2 o’clock in the day”, she explained.

Devi said that her husband would normally contact her whenever his cellular phone had a signal.  And according to her, when her husband failed to contact her as usual, she became concerned.  “I de try calling he but I didn’t get through”, she related.

The distressed woman said that she learnt of her husband’s death around 5:30 pm on Tuesday from one of the men who had been on the trip. She said that the family members were acquainted with these men since they had worked with Persaud.

She, however, was very upset that her husband’s body had been left in the bush and said that the police should have removed his body since Tuesday.  The woman told Stabroek News that relatives had travelled up yesterday morning to Kwakwani and only then did the police make a move to remove the body from the bush, she said.

The woman was not optimistic that the killers would be found.

Devi, meanwhile, disclosed that she had only returned to the country on Saturday evening, after spending a month in Canada.  She said that Persaud had kept urging her to cut short her trip and come home earlier, but she decided not to. “He kept telling me how he miss me and how I must come back, but I tell him that I would stay out de full time. Now ah come back and this happen couple days later.”

Persaud had four children aged 7, 4, 3 and 2. His wife said that he was a good father, husband and person. “He was a good man, he used to treat everybody nice. “He would make sure others get and he do without”, another relative said.

Other relatives also lamented the fact that such a young man had met such a cruel death. His wife said that he would have celebrated his 35th birthday next month.

In May 2007, Thakoor Persaud was among four men who were arrested and charged in connection with the discovery of over 100 kilogrammes of cocaine in fish glue at an Enterprise, East Coast Demerara home.  He and one of the co-accused Azad Khan, called ‘Waqar’ were exonerated of the charges, by Magistrate Sherdel Issacs after the matter went to trial.

In November of that year, businessman Vishnu Bridgelall called `Haffa’, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the case. The other accused, Chandrika Chattergoon, called ‘Percy’, had pleaded guilty when the case was first heard and was sentenced to four years each on two counts of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking, by then Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle.

Remembering Fineman

Meanwhile, persons who use the Aroaima, Kwakwani and Ituni trails have expressed concern about the recent ambush and killing which occurred along the UNAMCO trail on Tuesday.

Stabroek News spoke with several bus drivers and passengers yesterday as they were about to embark on journeys using the Aroaima, Kwakwani and Ituni routes.

Aroaima bus driver Raymond Busgith said he only learnt of the incident yesterday morning around 03:00 hrs when he approached the security checkpoint at Aroaima. He said he had started to load his bus with passengers when the security officer told him that there had been a shooting incident the previous day along the UNAMCO trail. He said he was also informed that three or four persons were shot at in the process. “They told me it looked like a robbery where several persons were shot and advised that we take the necessary precautions,” Busgith recounted.

Busgith admitted that he felt a bit fearful when he got the news. This led him to reflect on his bus being hijacked by the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang. Busgith said while he was the owner of the bus at the time of the hijacking it was being driven by someone else.

“We ain’t scared really. It’s not like Fineman story where they were killing people and things like that. So we aren’t so scared again. All we doing is taking the necessary precautions because this is just an ordinary situation, but you know you does still have the little feelings.”

Busgith said that one of the precautions he took was to delay his takeoff time by one hour. He left Aroaima at 04:00 hrs and not the usual 03:00 hrs. He said he also decided that he was not going to stop to pick up anyone en-route to Linden.  A man did attempt to stop the bus, but Busgith said he ignored him since, “it was a strange man and not even the passengers in the bus ever saw him before so I did not stop.” He said the man attempted to stop the bus between Ituni and Linden. For the entire journey which lasted about five hours, he said, that man was the only person seen on the trail heading into either of the areas.

‘Me whole body shivered…’

Some passengers who came out on that bus were seen preparing to journey back in. One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, said she learnt of the incident as she was preparing to travel out of Aroaima yesterday morning. She said the driver and the security officer at the checkpoint enlightened her about the UNAMCO trail shooting.

“When they tell me dah, me whole body shivered and I got really scared,” she said. “I was honestly thinking about staying in but because I gat important business to take care of I seh leh me tek de chance.”

She said she and the other passengers agreed with the driver not to pick up anyone along the trail.

“This thing mess up everything because we left so late most people didn’t get to do their business,” she said. “I for one couldn’t do half the things I had to do today because the timings was so wrong and messed up. Now is another feeling again because we have to go right back on the same trail again and that is another five hours. I just praying that God be with us because like it or not we have to go back.”

She too said that she reflected on the Fineman hijacking although she was not a passenger of the bus at that time.

“But it was this driver bus, never mind he was not driving at the time,” she said. “I remember how emotional it was for all the people living in Aroaima and every time we hear about incidents like these in these parts we would remember Fineman story and we will be afraid.”

The woman said she was preparing to take some friends into Aroaima and they were very fearful but decided that they would go nonetheless since their brother, a policeman, had promised to join them at Ituni.

A driver and passengers preparing to journey to Kwakwani said that they learnt of the incident on Monday night and like those persons from Aroaima, they decided not to stop along the trail.

When Stabroek News visited the bus park at Linden two buses were going to Aroaima and one to Kwakwani; two others had left earlier. The three drivers said that as a precaution they had decided that they would travel in convoy up to the point of the Aroaima/Kwakwani junction, from where the Kwakwani bus would have continued on its own.

The commuters said they would call on the joint services to patrol the area on a regular basis if they felt more at risk. “Only if we start seeing more people walking the area then we would need increased protection, otherwise we will be very cautious,” one passenger said. Persons said that on an average day it would take approximately three hours to run the route but with the current deplorable state of the road it takes no less than five hours.

The situation was different for persons who owned concessions and had employees or relatives working at concessions along the UNAMCO trail. One man told Stabroek News that he was very worried about his workers who were left to work in the area. According to the man, who chose not to reveal the exact location of his operation, he did not sleep on Tuesday night, having learnt of the incident. He said the men were taken to the area a few days ago and he had no means of communicating with them.

“Madam you can’t begin to think what is going through my head right now,” he said, worriedly. “This thing is really bothering me.”

He said he was awaiting further information on the exact location where the incident occurred and what really took place.

Based on the information gained, he said, he would make a decision on whether or not he would be recalling his workers. “If this area is going to be problematic I would have to give up working there,” he said. “I can only imagine what  (Leonard) Arokium is going through after his men were so brutally killed and I am not going to see things in daylight and take torchlight to search for it by night.”

Another man said he was on his way out of the UNAMCO trail after he had dropped off his employees at a location along the trail when the pick-up involved in the incident passed him “at top speed” and driving “as if he was crazy”. It was not until he got to the crossing that he learnt of the incident. He too expressed deep fear about the situation since he realized that he too could have been caught in the crossfire.

Another person told Stabroek News that he was preparing to go into the area to bring out his trucks and other items he had on one of his concessions.

“To get to my place I would have had to pass through the UNAMCO trail and this God is good because you could never tell what would have been my fate,” he said.

The man said he was scheduled to travel into area on Monday but was delayed after his vehicle developed mechanical difficulties. “When I learnt of this last night [Tuesday night] it made me wonder.”

He said that his vehicle was ready to travel yesterday but he decided to “let the dust settle” before taking on the challenging journey. He said that he would be in constant contact with his men, who live at Kwakwani, to assess the situation.