IT was an emotional atmosphere in the mining town of Linden on Friday as four year old Jamal Niranjan of Buck Hill, Wismar, Linden was laid to rest.

On Friday hundreds of residents of the community turned out to witness the send off of what some described as an innocent child who did no wrong.
Among those present at the final send off of the toddler relatives, friends, teachers, students and representative of the welfare department of the education department in the Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) area.
Two weeks ago the four-year old was killed after he received several stab wounds inflicted by his step-father whom, the child had witnessed attacking a teenager. The teenager was said to be the aunt of the four year old.
Two Fridays ago this publication reported that the man who was identified as Rawle Samuels the assailant flew into a rage after the child shouted for his teenage aunt to run away from her attacker. The man then took the child into a house and a few minutes later the child was discovered dead.
The man then went into hiding and was apprehended by the police and public spirited citizens who launched a man hunt for the assailant.
Following the stabbing the child was rushed to the Mackenzie Hospital with his tiny little body bearing several stab wounds and the weapon which was suspected to have been used to inflict the deadly wounds still protruding out of the child’s body.
Last week one woman who witnessed part of the assault told the Guyana Chronicle that she saw the 17-year-old girl running and the man in hot pursuit when she shouted to the man to leave the girl alone.
The woman said that the man then stopped and seconds after she saw the little boy and heard him shouting “run auntie, run”. It was then that the man grabbed the child by his hand and flung him over his shoulder.
She claimed that the man ignored her and went into the house with the child, after which she immediately ran to the police station.
She said that she decided to run to the police station after she saw the anger in the man’s face and his desperation to do something bad. She told the police that they needed to act quickly since there was a man trying to kill a little child.
As word of the horrific and senseless killing of the child made the rounds, several social network sites were saturated with postings and comments in relation to the matter.