A 13-year-old boy of Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice had to be rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital after his father allegedly chopped him on his left shoulder around 2 pm yesterday.
Safraz Razak received 10 stitches and was admitted a patient at the institution even though his condition was not serious.
After chopping the child, his father, Mohamed Razak, jumped on his bicycle and headed to the backdam to tend to his cows.
Reports are that the child was at the playground in the village, sitting on the pavilion with some other boys when his father came up to him with the cutlass and chopped him. There are reports too that the child is baffled as to what he had done to deserve the chop.
This newspaper learnt that the father, a cane-cutter at the Blairmont Sugar Estate who was under the influence of alcohol had gone to the playground where some men were drinking at another section and he started to “curse up.”
He also ordered his 11-year-old son, Reaz to go home and bring his cutlass, saying he wanted to go to the backdam. The man reportedly fired the cutlass at the child and it hit his head before connecting with his shoulder.
The child’s mother, Shamdai Persaud told Stabroek News that she was at a shop in the village when her other son ran to inform her that Safraz had been chopped. When she arrived at the scene the other boys had already wrapped the wound and she rushed the child to the hospital.
She is saying that the child’s father was trying to “broadside” him with the cutlass when he accidently got injured. She said too that the child must have been gambling while playing a game of marbles that caused his father to get angry.
Safraz was taken out of school just before he was scheduled to sit the National Grade Six Assessment to “look after cows in the backdam.”
This newspaper understands that it is the child’s desire to attend school again.
Police are currently seeking the father and the Probation Department in Region Five has been called in to investigate the matter.