A family of four, including a differently-abled child, was badly beaten and terrorised after three armed bandits invaded their Herstelling, East Bank Demerara (EBD) home on Tuesday evening.
The victims are Bibi Shaneeza Ali, 58; along with her son, Mohammed Ali, 32; her daughter-in-law, Ameena Hassan, 29; and her differently-abled grandson who is 13-years-old.
The women were badly beaten while the teenager’s face was covered with a piece of cloth to muffle his screams.
The bandits carted off with in excess of two million dollars worth of cash and jewellery.
INews was told that the family operates a grocery shop at their home and at the time of the incident, the gunmen posed as customers.
Hassan was in the shop when a man entered and requested a pack of cigarettes.
However, another voice was heard coming from the side of the shop saying “they don’t sell cigarettes”.
An alerted Hassan reportedly decided to lock the shop door, however, in doing so, she was immediately confronted by another man who had already entered the yard.
Hassan, and her 13-year-old son who was also in the shop at the time, were accosted by the three men and taken into their house.
It was at that time that Mohammed Alli and Bibi Alli were held at gunpoint.
Mohammed Alli told this publication that he was lying on a bed in the living room when he was attacked and his phone was taken away.
He was then instructed to get on the ground and his son, who was at the time screaming, was placed next to him.
But the perpetrators were annoyed with the child’s cries and attacked him in a bid to make him stop screaming. They subsequently covered his face with a cloth to muffle his cries.
The father recalled having some money nearby which he gave the bandits but they demanded more.
Meanwhile, the 58-year-old woman recalled being extremely terrified.
“I pee up! The man then come and collect me and said if I scream, he will kill me so he took me into my daughter-in-law’s bedroom,” she related, noting that Hassan was also dragged into the room.
While inside the room, the gunmen demanded valuables which she refused to hand over. As such, she was severely beaten about her face and body, which caused her to fall semi-unconscious.
“I started to see blur, because the licks was too much and after that, even though me tell them that I will cooperate, them still beat me…my daughter-in-law end up handing over plenty money after they threatened to kill the Bia (the teenager),” the woman recalled.
One of the perpetrators reportedly went into another room where he found close to one million dollars and a large quantity of jewellery including eight gold chains and rings, a cricket band, twelve gold rings and several other electronic items.
“The money I was saving for long because my son gave me permission to build behind his house and now all gone…I don’t know what I will do, I have to start all over,” the woman cried.
After feeling satisfied with the valuables they obtained, the three gunmen quickly escaped.
The police were called and the women were escorted to the hospital where the 58-year-old woman received several stitches above her left eye.
The traumatised family is calling on the police to carry out proper investigations since up to late Wednesday afternoon, the family was still waiting on ranks to return to dust for fingerprints.
