Two teenage siblings were stabbed to death and their friend wounded during a robbery at the Aranguez Savannah, San Juan, on Sunday night. The victims were Arshad and Jafar Kadir, of Boy’s Lane, D’Abadie. Their murders raised the toll for the year to 178. According to reports, around 9 pm, the brothers were watching football with friends under a tree in the savannah when they were approached by two men. Police said the men grabbed a tablet computer from the brothers’ friend Khalid Mohammed, of El Socorro, San Juan. Mohammed reportedly then began struggling with one of the men and he was stabbed once in his chest.
The men then attempted to rob the brothers of their cellphones. They also began struggling with the robbers and were stabbed. The men, who police said are of African descent and dressed in black, then ran through a track which leads to Mt Lambert. The three friends were rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, where the brothers died while undergoing treatment. Investigators said 16-year-old Arshad, a student at the Barataria South Secondary School, was stabbed once in the abdomen, while Jafar, 17, was stabbed once in the groin area, which severed a major artery. Jafar worked part-time at a hardware store in Aranguez and was enrolled in evening classes doing Maths and English. Investigators said following the incident police searched the area for the suspects but were unsuccessful.
In a short interview at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, the brothers’ father, Khalil Kadir, described his sons as loving and deeply religious. He said they were devout muslims and would visit the mosque every day to pray. Kadir said his sons left home yesterday evening to attend evening prayers at the Nur-e-Islam Mosque in El Socorro. Around 8.45 pm, they called him to say that afterwards they were going to the savannah with friends to watch football. “Is 15 minutes later I get the call from their friends that they get stabbed,” Kadir said. He said besides their religion, his sons were always involved in cricket and football. The boys’ uncle, Larry Holder, said they died within moments of each other at hospital.“Even though the police response was good, they both died within seconds of each other. Arshad died first.
He said the younger boy had a stab wound so deep it not only punctured his stomach, but injured other vital organs. The older brother also lost a lot of blood, since his stab wound tore an artery in the groin. Holder said Arshad had just turned 15 last Tuesday and Jafar would have been 17 in August. Holder said, “Not only have their parents lost their two boys, these were the only children they had. Their mom tried to hold it together, but their father is just openly devastated.” Their cousin, Shereema Ali, said this was particularly hard on the family because another cousin was murdered six years ago. Journalist Fazeer Mohammed, who knew the boys well because Jafar was an outstanding player in the area’s cricket coaching clinic, said, “We’ll have a minute’s silence at our (clinic’s) function on Sunday to mark their deaths. Worse is that this occurred just before the start of the holy month of Ramadan in a few weeks and in this period a number of days of special prayer and observances are to be done to prepare for Ramadan.”
Noting that similar incidents occurred in the savannah last year and the culprits seemed emboldened because of a low detection rate, Mohammed said, “In these circumstances, what can one say to parents like the Kadirs, and how can one truly understand their situation? All we can do is commiserate and they must seek solace in a higher power and try to cope.”The brothers were buried yesterday afternoon after a short funeral at the very mosque they visited on Sunday night. Detectives of the Region Two Homicide Bureau are probing the murders.