- PPP/C youth coordinator among those severely beaten

Hundreds of innocent people on Thursday afternoon became victims when angry protesters at Agricola, Greater Georgetown robbed and beat them as they approached the village.
Many of the victims visited Freedom House on Robb Street, Georgetown Friday and spoke of their ordeal.

Majeed Hoosein

Majeed Hoosein, a central executive member of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), said the entire event was orchestrated, claiming only persons of a particular ethnicity were targeted. He explained that he was on his way home when the incident began and he noticed that several persons were being badly beaten and robbed.
“The protesters were moving from one area to another and they were pelting the police with bottles, missiles and taunting the police,” he said. “They were harassing other persons moving and, during all of this, you had groups of people, the protesters, very surprisingly and interestingly saying things like how for this protest, they got specific instructions from certain people.”
Hoosein stated that he realised that the situation was getting from bad to worse, and tried making contact with his family via phone to ensure that they were safe.
“I was making a phone call to my family who was trapped on the other side of Georgetown to see if they were okay and to tell them that it wasn’t safe to come. And then there was a gang of 10 to 15 persons, and those were persons in the protest because I saw them earlier. The first one hit me at the side of my head with a wood. One of them then held onto my phone, while another one started to hit me on my hand with a cutlass,” he said.
Hoosein further explained that it was at this point that a protester with a knife approached him and tried to stab him. However, he managed to defend himself and escape.
He said he tried to make his way to Peters Hall, East Bank Demrara to get transportation and while passing through the crowd, he witnessed several females being mauled and robbed.
“These things were done in plain sight of people. They (the protesters) acted as if they had licence to rob people, as if they had instructions that nobody would do them anything. Luckily, I got a bus and went to the Diamond Hospital where I was treated and my wife and son managed to get home safely after 2:00 am,” he added.

Chriseandreana Persaud

Chriseandreana Persaud said she was stuck at work due to the fact that her family had notified her about the situation. She waited many hours at her workplace in Georgetown, hoping that the ordeal would pass quickly, but this was not to be.
“I heard that vehicles were turned over and were being burnt and so on. I was left stranded at work, so I decided to stay there hoping that the entire situation would have cleared up by a certain time or so on, and it was late in the night. So I had to see if I could have gotten somewhere to stay and, luckily enough, someone was willing to take me in,” she explained.
Persaud said she had to stay at somebody’s house, but she was fatigued and frustrated.

UG students

Nirmela Govinda, a student of the University of Guyana, noted that she and her classmates were stranded on campus because their parents had phoned to warn them that they could not go home due to the protest. After a few hours, one of her friends’ relatives arrived on campus to take them home, but they were stuck in traffic for many hours after they left UG.
“We were on Mandela Avenue for about three hours until we saw persons turning around their vehicles and they were telling us that they (the protesters) were coming to hurt us and for us to turn around. Eventually, everyone in the vehicle started panicking and you just heard a bunch of screams. You saw persons running down the road and you heard bottles breaking,” Govinda stated.
Another UG student, Priya Ruplall, told the media that she was in her classroom when she began to receive notifications and text messages about the unrest in Agricola. “I’m getting messages and my mom is saying she is stranded on the road and that there’s a lot of catastrophe at Agricola. I was told that vehicles were being burnt and turned over and people were being robbed. So I’m there at classes and my mom is there, and I didn’t know what to do and I felt so helpless,” she said.
There were reportedly many others who were physically hurt or emotionally scarred due to the events which unfolded during the protest. Many of them have been questioning the actions of the protesters, claiming such incidents can only result in chaos and mayhem.