Indentureship Indian Heritage Month May 05

Kidnapped mechanic murdered
THE mechanic kidnapped when pirates hijacked a passenger boat at Parika on the East Bank Essequibo on Wednesday morning, was murdered and buried in a shallow grave on a sand reef, police said last night.


DAUGHTER MOURNS: Deonarine Prahalad's daughter, centre, being comforted by relatives yesterday after the body of her father arrived at Parika.

Police Public Relations Officer John Sauers said Deonarine Prahalad, 35, appeared to have been shot several times.

His body was found wrapped in tarpaulin in a shallow grave at Hamburg on the Essequibo Coast, he said.

There was a huge crowd at the Parika fish port when the body was taken there yesterday afternoon.

His wife and other family members wept loudly and openly as the sack containing the body was brought from the boat and taken into the Parika Police Station compound.


GRIEF: the kidnapped mechanic's wife, Marlyn Prahalad, sitting, is comforted by relatives. (Mike Norville photos)

It was then placed in a waiting hearse from the Lyken's Funeral Home in Georgetown, despite tearful pleas from family members for them to have a look at the body.

The Chronicle understands that the body was buried on a sand reef and was found by Prahalad's relatives.

His wife Marlyn Prahalad fainted several times as his body arrived at Parika and had to be revived by family members.

On Wednesday, five heavily-armed pirates staged a daring morning hijacking of the passenger boat at the `Two Brothers' shipping wharf at Parika, wounding the captain and another passenger in the process.


BODY ARRIVES: part of the crowd at Parika as the body of the mechanic arrived there yesterday afternoon.

The captain, Charoma Harka of Zorg, on the Essequibo Coast, was shot three times, while a Venezuelan identified only as 'Green-eye' was grazed by a bullet, witnesses said.

'Green-eye' and Harka were dumped from the vessel at Leguan Island but the pirates kept Prahalad called 'Davo' or 'Kaburi'.

All of the gunmen wore hooded cloaks with handkerchiefs wrapped around their faces, witnesses said.

One day after the attack, the hijacked vessel was discovered at Hamburg on the Essequibo Coast, with one of its engines missing, and relatives feared that Prahalad had been killed.

The men were attacked around 11:30 hrs, minutes after they purchased gasoline and were headed to the Parika stelling for a scheduled trip to Kaituma, relatives said.

Woman beheaded, limbs cut off
POLICE were yesterday continuing investigations into the gruesome murder of a young woman who was beheaded and her limbs cut off.

Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. John Sauers, said the head of the 20-year-old was found floating Thursday in a canal in a canefield aback of Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara.

The limbs of the woman, of African descent, were also cut off, he reported.

Both hands were severed from the wrist and both legs were cut off.

Sauers said she was found naked.

The remains are at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour in Georgetown and anyone who can help the investigation into the murder can contact the East Coast Police on telephone numbers 229-2700, 229-2289, 229-2569 or 229-2557