Corentyne mason dies 3 weeks after being chopped by villager

…suspect said to be of ‘unsound mind’

By Andrew Carmichael

A mason of Williamsburg, Corentyne, East Berbice (Region Six), who was brutally chopped about the body — especially to the neck — by a villager of ‘unsound mind’ some three weeks ago, and had been battling for his life in hospital, has succumbed.
Fifty-four-year-old Mohamad Aslam was reportedly chopped to the upper part of his body several times on October 3 at Williamsburg, after running to his wife’s

rescue. He reportedly received more than 30 chops from his attacker, and was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital, where he was treated before being transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.  However, because of the severity of the wounds, he was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital; but, on Sunday, he succumbed to his injuries.
Recounting the incident, his wife, Basmattie Aslam, also called ‘Urmila’, explained that, on the day in question, her husband had gone on an errand while she was at home cooking. “I go outside to the road for a piece of wood for the ‘fireside’ and I see him (husband) coming and I see a man coming, but I didn’t pay him (the man) no mind. Just as I bend down to pick up the wood, he (suspect) start to broadside me. I run inside, and he run behind me with the cutlass; and I run to the side and my husband run behind and try to take away the cutlass, and the man give him one chop to the neck and he fall down.”
According to her, the attacker, who lives a mere four houses away, then turned his attention on her again, and continued to lash her with the cutlass; and her husband got up again to rescue her.
“Since he get up he get another chop to the other side of the neck,” she said, adding that her husband was dealt several more chops as he lay helpless on the ground. “He (murder suspect) only aiming chops to the neck all the time,” she said.
When the man was finished chopping her husband, she said, the man calmly walked away. Neighbours say the man is of unsound mind.
The grieving widow — a mother of two, who had been married to her husband for 30 years — said that following the news of her husband’s demise, she was visited by the mother of her attacker, who has been charged with attempted murder – a charge which is now expected to be changed with the death of Aslam. The suspect is currently on remand.