MOHAMED Jaleel Rahaman, his wife Rani, and the rest of his family are now each day living in fear of their lives as they deal with telephone threats from individuals vowing to harm them. Rahaman’s parents own the business called G Bacchus Enterprise on Hadfield Street, which is housed in the former MFK Building.

Since last year, the family has had to deal with four fires, which they believe were all linked to a single businessman.

Rahaman recently told this newspaper that the issues stemmed from a building that the family purchased from this businessman. He said that after the transaction had been completed, the man decided that he wanted more money for the building; and when the family refused to pay the US$350,000 more that the man had been demanding, Rahaman said, they became the victims of telephone threats. “People calling us to tell us if we don’t pay the money, we will face the consequence of kidnapping. They said they know which schools our children go to, where my mother sells in the market, my wife’s whereabouts, my whereabouts,” he said.  
In addition to setting fire on the family’s different business premises, Rahaman said, the perpetrators have also burned his mother’s stall in Bourda Market.

He is appealing to governmental authorities to look into this matter, as, so far, he said, the family has received no help from anyone. He said the family pays a lot of taxes and revenue, and should get some amount of attention and protection in their crisis.

Should no help be forthcoming, Rahaman said, the family will have no alternative but to return to the United States, where they will be afforded some more protection. “We are all American citizens. We left there and chose here to come and build this country. We are not getting any help here, so we may have to go back and build America instead of building Guyana,” he said.