It was an atmosphere of weeping and screaming at the Goora family home at Tamana Hill yesterday, during the funeral service for Nerissa Goora, who was killed by an assailant while walking home last Wednesday.
Relatives, friends and neighbours hugged each other, wept and screamed as Goora’s body entered the home.
Pundit Gaya Maharaj, addressing those at the service, said we were living in dangerous times and we should be not only our neighbour’s keeper, but most importantly our sister’s keeper.
Killing of our sisters was on the rise and was worrisome, he added. He warned all mothers and especially young women to be very careful when leaving their homes for work or shopping.
He advised them to always have company when leaving home, if possible, if they have to walk. “Call your parents or relatives on your cellphone if you have to walk along a lonely road. Do not take chances to walk alone and on lonely roads.
“It is for your safety,” he warned.
“Today we are in mourning not because of Nerissa’s fault, but because of those heartless men, who have no respect for our female members of society. Their objective is to steal, kill and destroy for what, as a pundit, I will also like to know,” he said.
Indra Sinanan Ojar-Maharaj, director of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, said Goora’s death was a tragedy.
On behalf of the ERHA she extended sympathy to the Goora family. Leave the judgement to God, she added.
Sinanan Ojar-Maharaj described Goora as a serious and competent employee of the ERHA. She was good in dealing with the public, and visitors to the health centre would normally express the wish that all others were like her.
Only recently she had to sign Goora’s appraisal form in which the young woman was marked as excellent in the performance of her duties. Rajkumar Bhagaloo, councillor for the area, in his address said the Goora family was very peaceful and respectable.
FOUR ARRESTED
Cops arrest four in connection
with stabbing death
It was reported that four men were nabbed in an exercise carried out in the Tamana district yesterday as officers zeroed in on suspects wanted for Goora’s murder. Goora was stabbed to death on Wednesday afternoon.
The exercise was under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad and Senior Supt Simboodnath Rajkumar along with Supt Hendron Moses, Insp Maharaj, Sgt Didier, and PCs Tewarie, Gordon and Williams.
The four arrested men, all in their 20s, have been handed over to homicide officers of Region 11, Arouca.
Two others are still being sought and sources revealed that one of the suspects had already begun giving key information to investigators.