Engineer shot dead by bicycle bandits

By: Romila Boodram

A 23-year-old Electrical Engineer was gunned down about 30 feet from his Lot 33 Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar home around 04:00 hrs yesterday by three gunmen during a suspected robbery.

Dead: Abdool Saleem Aziz

The dead man has been identified as Abdool Saleem Aziz, a Beharry Group of Companies employee.
The 23-year-old University of Guyana graduate was shot four times about his body.
He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) by neighbours but succumbed to his injuries shortly after.
In a press release, the police said that Aziz was confronted by three men in an apparent attempt to rob him as he was about to enter his premises.
During the confrontation, Aziz was allegedly shot.
The Prashad Nagar Police Outpost is located two corners from where the young man was shot and killed.
At the scene yesterday, neighbours recalled hearing several gunshots.
Some claimed that they thought it was the sound of squibs, given the fact that Diwali is just a few days away.
One elderly man, who asked for his name to be withheld, revealed that when he heard the loud explosion, he looked out and saw a man lying on the roadway.
He said that he immediately telephoned the police and other neighbours and informed them about what he had seen.
“After the police come, then I went outside to see who it was and then I see other neighbours start coming out too,” the elderly man related.
Investigators believed that the young man may have just gotten out of a taxi and proceeded to open his gate when he was confronted by the bandits who reportedly rode up on bicycles.

Dead: Abdool Hassan

A police source close to the investigation said that the fact that Aziz had been found lying a short distance away from his yard, clearly indicates that he tried to escape from the men but failed.
It is not clear if the bandits took anything from the victim.
Investigators found a number of spent shells at the scene.
Late yesterday, the dead man’s father, Abdool Aziz, who had travelled all the way from Essequibo after he was informed of his son’s death, was visually distraught when this newspaper visited him at Prashad Nagar.
At the time he had very little information about how his son lost his life.
However he explained that one of his nephews called and informed him that his son was shot and he later succumbed at the hospital.
“My son was very quiet… I never had a problem with he. He lived alone here for some time and he never had a problem with anyone,” the father said with teary eyes.
“All I know is what my nephew said to me and what the police told me, I didn’t get a chance to talk to the neighbours,” he added.
The older Aziz said that his son had graduated from the University of Guyana recently after which he began working.
Aziz related that he last saw his son alive when the young man had travelled to the Essequibo Coast three Sundays ago to celebrate Eid ul-Adha with his family and friends.
He had no idea that his son’s life would have been snuffed out before he could see him again.
No one has so far been arrested.
Aziz’s death occurs less than 72 hours after the death of a 48-year-old taxi driver, Abdool Hassan, whose lifeless body was found with multiple stab wounds in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo on Friday night.

Aziz’s Lot 33 Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar home where he was confronted