A team of Guyana’s lawmen, headed by Deputy Commander, ‘B’ Division Errol Watts, has travelled to Suriname to continue to investigate the recent fatal piracy attack on the Corentyne and locate the missing fishermen.
Commander of ‘B’ Division Ian Amsterdam has confirmed that the suspects held following the attack are still in custody. He also confirmed that information obtained from a suspect in custody indicated that the three missing men were tied to an anchor and tossed overboard.
Last Friday, Rosana 664, a vessel owned by Mohamed Arran, was hijacked by five men, armed with pieces of wood and cutlasses. Captain of the boat Seepersaud Persaud, was thrown overboard, after the pirates ordered him to throw his crewmembers overboard and he refused.
However, Persaud survived the attack and was rescued after floating for three hours in the water. But fisherman Hemchand Sookdeo, who was beaten and thrown overboard, was found dead hours after the attack, tangled in seines, with a chop wound to the back of his head.
The three fishermen who are still missing are Munesh Churman, known as Boyo, 26, a father of a two-year-old daughter and a five-month-old son; Dochan Sukra known as Butcher, 54; and Dhanpaul Ramphal, a father of one. The men all hail from the Upper Corentyne.
After Rosana 664 was hijacked, the pirates used the boat to rob two other boats that same night. Owner of one of those boats, Clent Nathoo of Lot 203 First Street, Number 67 Village, said his workmen had told him that the pirates had used the missing men to offload their fish and that they had also doused their boat with gasoline and threatened to set it on fire. The second boat that was attacked is owned by Hasrat Ali, but the fishermen on that boat did not face the same threat.
The families of the missing fishermen have not given up hope at this time.
Amsterdam met with them on Tuesday afternoon.
