Dear Editor,
On January 15, 2008 and February 7, 2008 my premises, occupied by me and my wife was bombarded by Molotov cocktails. The police at the Anna Regina Police Station described the incident as an attempted felony, since purportedly there was no incendiary evidence.
The act of harassment was not an isolated incident but part of a pattern to which my wife and I have been subjected by three known persons.
I had cause to report incidents, including attempted burglaries, blatant obstruction of my property and on two occasions these three men tried to torch my home. I was soundly asleep with my wife in my two-storey home when I was jolted awake, to a crashing noise. I did not venture out of my bedroom since I saw them earlier drinking rum in the yard next to mine. I telephoned the Anna Regina Police Station and the police arrived to investigate.
Upon the police’s arrival, I went with detectives Gangoo and Deochan to my verandah, where we observed several pieces of broken mineral water bottles and what appeared to be a wick. Both officers examined the materials and decided that they would take some back to their office to be tested for fingerprints. At around 08:00 hours, both officers arrived at my residence the next day to continue investigations into the matters. At that point I requested my wife to check around the yard to see if there was anything suspicious, my wife discovered several shards of broken bottles similar to that found on the verandah, along with a piece of cloth soaked with gasoline hanging on a fence of one of the suspects and the same type of mineral water bottles in his yard.
This was brought to detective Deochan’s attention but to date no suspect has been taken in custody. Every time I contacted Sgt Bowman of the CID department at this station to find out about the matters, he would tell me that the matters are at the DPP. Editor, I have lost confidence in the police here at Anna Regina since they can be seen very often with the perpetrators socializing at his home. I know of many cases of attempted rapes, arsons and burglaries which are all being covered up by certain officers which were brought to my attention by the families.
According to the investigators at the Anna Regina Police Station, one of two files is lodged there, while another- the analyst’s report on the evidence collected- is yet to be returned from Georgetown. This report is necessary for continued investigations on the Essequibo Coast. Hypothetically, evidence collected may have taken, no more than a week following the respective incidents, to be dispatched to the analyst in Georgetown. Such evidence, therefore, has been in Georgetown presumably for more than two years to date, still awaiting a report.
My matter, compared to an actual malicious fire is criminally inferior, but apparently not insignificant, since according to the Criminal Law Offences Act:
“Everyone who unlawfully and maliciously places or throws in, into, upon, under, against, or near any building, any explosive substance, with intent to destroy or damage any building… whether or not any explosion takes place, and whether or not any damage is actually caused, be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.”
There is a certain trauma which has accompanied these criminal acts, so as long as the investigations remain suspended and the felonies unsolved, the victims justifiably dread a repeat of such villainy.
I am not undiscerning of the slothfulness which characterizes some investigations, but I believe for a report to be two years overdue is less than desirable.
Hooligans who sought to torch my property, unmindful of lives within, are still roaming free. Stalled investigations will empower anyone but the victims. The Guyana Police Force owes me better.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
Former Deputy Mayor
Anna Regina Town Council
