On Friday August 20, sometime mid-afternoon, gunmen shot and killed 35-yr-old Lekhram Bishundial, the elder son of Doodnauth Bishundial, a farmer and businessman of Manilla, Mahaica.
He was at that time making preparations for the wedding of his younger son, Totaram, which was scheduled for the Sunday, two days after his son’s brutal murder.
The sobbing and grief-stricken father cried “I invited people for a wedding but they would be attending a funeral instead.”
The maticore (an important ritual of Hindu wedding ceremonies) was due to be performed that very evening.  A time of supreme joy in a hard-working, law-abiding family had been transformed instantaneously into a bottomless pit of absolute grief and despairing distress with one merciless action of a thief and a murderer.
Totaram had visited Georgetown to make purchases for his wedding, then visited the bank to withdraw a large sum of money to cover wedding expenses before heading for his home where he was supposed to participate in one of the most important ceremonies of his wedding that very evening.
While he was driving toward home in a four-runner, accompanied by a female cousin by the name of Sita, his brother was simultaneously heading away from home in a truck to collect chairs from the Cove and John Ashram for the ceremony.  The two brothers were finalizing arrangements over the phone as they drove, then had stopped to continue their conversation in person when they met at Hope Public Road in the vicinity of the NDIA pump station when two men armed with guns pulled up on a motorbike next to the truck, rushed up to them and demanded “the bag with the money.”
Shocked, the brothers failed to respond immediately and one gunman discharged a couple of round at Lekhram, hitting him in the chest.  Totaram jumped into the canal and ducked underwater, which probably saved his life.  One gunman then ran toward the four-runner and demanded the money from Totaram’s shocked cousin, discharging a bullet in the process.  The bullet missed the terrified girl, who had just witnessed the cold-blooded murder of her cousin, and instead punctured the vehicle.  The murderous felon did not fire any more bullets because he saw the bag with the money, which he took and then left the scene with his accomplice.
While driving his brother toward the hospital, Totaram saw the gunman who had shot his brother at the gas station at Victoria.  He stopped and when the murderer saw him he immediately jumped into a waiting white car which sped away.  The shocked and grief-stricken Totaram was only able to partially glimpse the licence number before he lost track of the car.
According to police reports the two gunmen, along with the driver of the getaway car were apprehended hours after their attack on the brothers.
Lekhram Bishundial was a loyal and hard-working son for his parents, Doodnauth and Shirley; a loving husband to his young wife Sumin, and a doting father to his baby girl, and an exemplary role model to his siblings, who loved him dearly.  Last Wednesday was the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, a day that celebrates the love and respect between brothers and sisters, when brothers pledge to protect their sisters and the father said Lekhram’s sister is inconsolable at the loss of this big brother on whom she doted.
He was a responsible and civic-minded member of the society, who always helped others.  Along with his immediate family members he left behind many friends and relatives whom are devastated by his death.
This is the young man whom cruel and ruthless killers robbed of his life for greed of money they had not earned.

And this is the story of dozens of families in Guyana, of every race and religion, whose lives have been devastated by the rapacious vultures, touted as “innocent young men” by the opposition and GHRA, who form the army of a prominent member of the opposition cabal.

These murderous gunmen are of the ilk of “Fine Man”, “Skinny”, and “Blackie”, whom the opposition had called hero and whose body had been taken to the site named after a genuine Guyanese hero, Cuffy’s Square, and draped with the pride of Guyana – the Golden Arrowhead.

And it is this way of life that the opposition encourages its young members to pursue; that which concerned community leaders like Mboya Wood are attempting to change by re-directing the course of their future.
Is it any wonder that they are so vociferously denouncing the rapprochement being sought by leaders who think positively of productive, proactive and collaborative solutions and the Government?