- believes gunman was a cop Popular city businessman Mohamed F Khan (MFK) is convinced that a recent execution attempt on his life was ordered by a business associate who is currently indebted to him.

Businessman Mohamed F. Khan believes he was a target for execution

Khan, 54, who was shot in his abdomen by a lone gunman last week Wednesday night at La Grange on the West Bank of Demerara, is basing his string of beliefs on the fact that his business associate has been threatening him over a sour property deal. Khan also believes that the gunman is either a serving or former member of the Guyana Police Force, giving rise to his suspicions that his business associate is using his well placed “connections” to escape justice. News of the shooting was reported in the media last Wednesday, but at the time it had appeared to be an attempted robbery. A former television talk show host on the popular CNS Channel 6, Khan has been out of Guyana for the past six years, claiming that he fled the land of his birth because of death threats he had been receiving. He is no stranger to controversy, having had major differences with a former top government official, which he claimed forced him to sell his business and flee Guyana. He said that his recent bout of troubles stemmed from the sale of one of the many properties he owned in the city. Khan, who returned to Guyana last Monday, related in an exclusive interview with this newspaper that his business associate is trying to rob him of several million dollars which is owed to him from the sale of a prominent city business. “I keep asking him for my money and at first he was always making excuses and then he started threatening me. He threatened me that if I come back to Guyana he will take me out.” Khan, who was a staunch advocate of the Buy Local campaign, said that he learnt from his underworld connections that there was an $11M bounty on his head. This he reported to the police. Nevertheless he came home to Guyana on Monday for a brief holiday knowing full well that his business associate could make good on his threat. But although he tried to keep a low profile throughout his brief stay, his presence here was soon exposed. Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, he told this newspaper that he was in Kitty last week Tuesday afternoon having dinner with a former employee while watching the world cup football game between Germany and Brazil, when a person who is closely linked to this business associate called on the telephone. “My former employee informed the other person that I was there and I realized that was a big mistake but I did not pay it much mind. The next day I was in Kitty again and the person called again,” Khan recalled. He said that he subsequently left Kitty and headed for home on the West Bank of Demerara, unaware that he was being followed by a gunman on a motorcycle. Khan recalled that before he reached his home, he stopped outside a Mosque to speak to a friend. He said that while talking to his friend he noticed a man on a black Honda CG motorcycle coming from behind. The man rode past and then turned in front of him and discharged two rounds at Khan from about 10 feet away. Khan stated that after that, the man ordered him to put his hand behind his head. “When I look at him, I’m seeing a policeman…he looked like an old police that I knew.” “I said, ‘tall man wha wrong with you? Why you shooting at me man?’” Khan related. But the gunman remained calm and instead ordered Khan to lie with his face down, and he soon realized that the man was deadly serious. He said he refused to comply. “He say, ‘is money you come for? Dis is wah you gon get.’ And then he shot me in the stomach,” the businessman explained. By this time several persons who had heard the gunshots began gathering closer to the scene and according to Khan, the gunman tried to camouflage the real purpose of his mission. “He start saying that he ‘want he f%^&ing money’,” Khan told this newspaper. After the gunman fled, the bleeding businessman was rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he underwent emergency treatment. Fortunately the bullet exited his body without causing much damage. As such he said he did not want to stay too long at the institution, since he was convinced that his life was still in danger. “I wanted to leave the hospital because I did not know what would happen after, I did not know who to trust,” Khan stated. He said that it was the same feeling of insecurity that forced him to flee Guyana in the first place. According to Khan, although he has given police the information, they are yet to make an arrest. A police source on the West Coast of Demerara has ruled out robbery as a motive for Khan’s shooting. The source did indicate to this newspaper that the incident bore all the signs of an execution attempt. Khan was however, loud in his praise of the staff at the hospital. “They were professional. The treatment I received there was equal to what you would receive in the USA,” he said. Khan is anxious for the day to come for him to return to the “safety” of the USA. But when asked if he will ever come back to Guyana, the businessman declared that he will return to invest in Guyana soon, claiming that he has big plans to erect a state of the art supermarket.