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The children were hacked to death by their own father last Wednesday afternoon in their home, while their mother lay helpless and seriously injured.
Buried according to Muslim rites, the children’s funeral brought out the community of Zeelugt in a tremendous show of solidarity, and registered the community’s outright condemnation of the abusive actions of a father, described by many as cowardly.
The two who were laid to rest are five-year-old Kimberly Houston and her two-year-old brother, Tarif Lord. The mother of the children, 21-year-old Bibi Nazarena Houston, is still hospitalized.
Expenses for the children’s funeral were borne by the village’s Muslim community, since the children’s relatives could not afford to bury them. The funeral was attended by persons who travelled from several villages away, and from several hinterland areas where some of the family members reside.
The children were buried in Zeelugt, and were placed in a hole dug six feet deep. They were not placed in a tomb.
This publication was informed that the mother of the children was made aware of their death only Friday last. Family members said she had requested that the children be buried next to or on top of their grandfather, who had passed away sometime ago. That was, however, not possible, since the cemetery where the children’s grandfather has been buried has since been condemned.
Last Wednesday evening, 21-year-old Bibi Nazarena Houston and her two children, five-year-old Kimberly Houston and two-year-old Tarif Lord, were rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital after they had been subjected to a severe chopping spree by their father, who has been sharing a common-law relationship with their mother for the past seven years.
The incident occurred at Lot 867 Brother Dam Squatting Area, Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo.
The children were pronounced dead on arrival at the Leonora Cottage Hospital, while Bibi Houston was admitted for the wounds she sustained, even as their assailant went into hiding.
On Wednesday night, when this newspaper visited the home, the woman’s relatives were gathered in shock in the home of the children’s grandmother.
“We were told that that it all started when our sister decided on Friday last to remove from the home she shared with the man, since they were having some problems.”
However, the woman would later return and decided to go to the Welfare Department on Wednesday, a decision that the man thought was a good one, and he had reportedly even accompanied the woman.
It was when they returned home that they began arguing and fighting in the house, in the presence of the children.
The woman’s sister added that the five-year-old then came and informed them that they should call the police, since her father said that he was going to “kill all ah we.”
Bibi’s mother then went over to the home of the couple and told the man that she wanted no one to kill anyone in her yard. By that time the man had already recalled his five-year-old daughter into the home, and had secured the children and his reputed wife in the house.
His mother-in-law, realizing he was serious about his threat, decided to call the police; and the moment she placed the call, the man began hacking the children and his reputed wife.
When the children’s grandmother was finally able to get the door open, the man pushed her from the landing of the house and ran into a coconut farm located a short distance away. He had also promised to hang himself.
When the woman entered the home, she realized that the children were lying next to their mother covered in blood, as she, their mother, sat in a semi-conscious state. It was only after a resident and his family came over to the house that they realized that the children were dead.
Relatives said that when they first heard the commotion in the locked house, they thought he was broad-siding the woman, but they learnt that she was being chopped only after she cried out that her hand had been chopped.
