A 22-year- old Islamic teacher met an untimely death on Saturday morning after the car he was driving slammed into several cows on the Philadelphia Public road on the East Bank of Essequibo.

Dead is Riaz Khan, a teacher at the Guyana Islamic Institute at Zeeburg on the West Coast of Demerara.

Four other men, who are said to be students of the institute, sustained injuries. One of the men, whose name was given as Ramzan Ayube Dominga of Adventure, Essequibo Coast, is hospitalized in a critical but stable condition in a private hospital in the city. The others, Arif Ally, Ahab Amin and another whose name was given as “Arif” were briefly hospitalized.

According to reports, the men were heading to catch the ferry at Parika around 02:30hrs on Saturday morning, when the car crashed into two cows. Both cows died at the scene.

A cousin of the deceased told the Guyana Chronicle that the car was in the vicinity of Philadelphia when the driver observed several cows sitting at the side of the roadway. Reports are that the driver attempted to swerve from the cows but was late in recognizing three additional cows which were crossing the road at the time.

The injured men were rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital where Khan was pronounced dead on arrival. The others were subsequently transferred to the West Demerara Regional Hospital and later, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

However, upset relatives of the men told this publication that on arrival at the GPHC around 05:00hrs , they were told that only one doctor was on duty. They said that after waiting almost half of an hour, they decided to transfer the injured men to a private hospital, since Ramzan was still unconscious and the others were in pain.

They said that this became a problem, since hospital staff informed them that no ambulance was available. The injured were then placed in a bus, but the hospital security staff prevented them from leaving the compound. In the meantime, no medical personnel had examined the injured men. They were later taken to a private hospital where Ramzan remained in an unconscious state.

Over at Khan’s home at Vergenoegen, his relatives were preparing for a wake as relatives and friends arrived to provide support to the grieving family. They said the young man and his students were on their way to attend a ceremony on the Essequibo Coast when tragedy struck.

Khan was described as jovial, kind and free-handed individual, who was devout in his Islamic studies. The young man, who was versed in reciting the Koran, was preparing to pursue studies at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia in September this year.
He leaves to mourn his parents, relatives and friends.