We must come together as a nation and do everything we can to stop the “beasts and monsters” roaming our land, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said.
Persad-Bissessar said we are all responsible for the “murder and mayhem” currently taking place in this country.
She made the statements at the funeral of 13-year-old Videsh Subar whose throat was slit during a break-in at his 56-year-old neighbour Rose Mohammed’s Ajim Baksh Road, Malabar, home on Wednesday.
Mohammed, who was also killed in the incident, had her final rites observed on Friday.
Subar’s funeral took place at his family’s home yesterday.
It was conducted by Pundit Prakash Samsundar Tiwari.
Persad-Bissessar cried as she spoke at Subar’s funeral.
“What I do know is that we as a country as a people we have to stop this, we have to stop the slaughter, we have to come together, we have to work together I mean how can this be?” Persad-Bissessar said.
“How can this happen and it is our fault every one of us it is our fault because we have failed to protect the young and the innocent,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said she had the funeral of two murdered victims to attend yesterday.
The final rites for Margaret Mills, 67, who died at hospital from stab wounds to the heart and lung sustained during a home invasion were also observed yesterday. Mills is the sister of councillor for Caparo/Mamoral John Lezama.
“In our country now it is murder and mayhem and what are we doing? What as a people are we doing? We come and we cry and we hug up but what are we doing?” Persad-Bissessar asked.
Persad-Bissessar called on attendees at the funeral to not just leave and remain unchanged.
“What happens tomorrow? Tomorrow will be another one, so let us join hands, let us stop this let us stop this brutality let us stop these monsters, what kind of monsters would do this?” she said.
“So all of you please do not wash your hands when you leave here, let us be our brother’s keeper, our sister’s keeper and the keeper of all our children let us work together please let us do that,” Persad-Bissessar said.
Speaking to the media following the funeral Persad-Bissessar said:
“We have to do everything to cut down these beasts and these monsters, every step should be pulled out before they go and slaughter more children”.
Emotional send-off for Videsh
It was an emotional send-off for Subar yesterday.
Around 9 am, his body was brought to the house of mourning by a Dass hearse.
When the coffin with Subar’s body dressed in East Indian garb was taken into the house a scream shattered the silence on Ajim Baksh Road.
When the funeral began, hundreds of mourners were already gathered at Ajim Baksh Road to pay their final respects to the teenager.
Among those in attendance were pupils of Ward’s Learning Living Centre, the school that Videsh attended.
Subar sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination (SEA) in May and was awaiting results.
Education Minister Anthony Garcia disclosed on Friday that the teen had been placed in a secondary school in Arima.
Subar’s mother, Dhanraji Veena’s blood-curdling scream of “what they did my baby that for?” rang out throughout the funeral at various intervals as she tried to come to terms with her only child’s death.
Garcia called on the attendees to be their “brother’s keeper”.
“It is really a sad day for all of us here. In Trinidad and Tobago I don’t know what has become of our country. Crime seems to have taken a hold of us but it is the responsibility of all of us to be our brother’s keeper and while we share sorrow with the bereaved family let us not forget, let us remember always that we are our brother’s keeper and if it is one thing we can do in memory of this lost soul is that we must bind together and ensure that we stamp out this scourge of crime,” Garcia said.
Subar’s best friend, Devanand, described him as “the coolest guy”.
MP for D’Abadie/O’Meara Ancil Antoine said the Government and police “will not leave any stone unturned until we find and bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice”.
Arima Mayor Lisa Morris-Julian said she was a distant relative of the bereaved family.
“As devastated as we are I take comfort in knowing that all unfair games must play over whether in this life or the next,” Morris-Julian said.
Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen and Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez were also in attendance.
Dhanraji Veena was distraught during yesterday’s service and was unable to walk and had to be assisted by her husband, Lennon Martin, and other relatives.
She collapsed several times and an ambulance was called.
As Subar’s coffin was being removed from the family’s home and taken to the Caroni Cremation Site, Dhanraji Veena screamed for him to come back.
“Why did they take my baby? Why? Why? Why? I want my baby,” Dhanraji Veena screamed.
As the hearse drove off the rain came down.
