-after beating housewife
A masked man yesterday attacked a New Hope, East Bank Demerara housewife in her home, which he then torched, leaving the battered woman and her family with only the clothes on their backs.
Shurdai Khodai, who said she was unaware of the motive behind the attack, told Stabroek News that the man beat her and doused her with kerosene from the stove but she managed to get away from him before he set the house alight.
Khodai, her husband, four children, and her parents were the occupants of the one flat, two-bedroom house, which belonged to her in-laws. The fire was started around 10 am and New Hope residents said that fire-fighters responded about 45 minutes later, by which time the structure had already been flattened.
When this newspaper visited the scene, firemen were still trying to put out the fire.
According to Khodai, she was alone at the time of the attack. She stated that a man, who works behind her home at a poultry farm, shouted to her to run but she did not, since she was concerned about why he told her to do that. “Me alone left after everybody gan and sweep I sweeping an I see the person come from the back with a mask on and start kick and cuff me without saying nothing,” she added.
Khodai added that her attacker kicked her in her abdomen and in her face, bursting her chin. After he had finished beating her, he then took the kerosene stove and emptied the kerosene on her head. “Like he been a go scramble the match and me try fuh slip out an run to the people yard and tell the aunty watch see if the house a burn. When she peep out it de done start blazing,” she said.
She added that it appeared that the man had a gun stuck in his waist and she feared he would have burned her to death if she had not escaped. The woman added that the man who told her to run was also beaten by the masked man because he had blood on his clothes.
She said, “Like the boy see the man hiding in the bush at the back, so he tell me to run but I din know why he seh dat.”
Khodai also stated that she did not see where her attacker went after she left the house. She added that she did not know why anyone would burn her family’s house.
This is the second time Khodai has lost her residence in a fire. She had previously resided with her mother-in-law, whose home was also destroyed by fire.
A resident who was at home when the fire started recalled hearing her aunt yell “fire.” Upon hearing the cry, she stated that she immediately went outside and she was confronted by the burning structure.
“People were already trying to stop it ’cause is a small house. After about 10 minutes, the lady came out of the back street with a bloody mouth saying that a man attacked her and beat her,” the resident said.
