THERE was deep anguish at Montrose and Good Hope on the East Coast Demerara yesterday, as hundreds of mourners and sympathizers joined the grieving families of two more of the twelve victims of last Sunday’s wanton massacre at Bartica, in bidding their last farewell.

The two men buried were Captain of the vessel Davie II - 23-year-old Abdul Yasseen of Good Hope, and crew member Baldeo Singh, 54 of Second Street, Montrose, also on the East Coast Demerara.

There were separate funerals for the two – each held in their respective villages, but at each, the mood was the same – filled with grief, as the relatives and others wept and mourned silently, even as speakers fearlessly condemned, in the strongest possible terms — the wanton atrocities which have reared their ugly heads in less than three weeks.

The first of the atrocities alluded to was the Lusignan massacre of January 26, in which 11 persons, including five children were decimated and more recently, the Bartica bloodbath, in which twelve able bodied men (including three police ranks on duty) had their lives brutally snuffed out by heavily armed marauding gunmen, numbering about 20.

Yasseen’s body was earlier in the day taken to his home for viewing, after which it was removed to the Lusignan Tarmac for Janaaza, followed by interment at the Triumph Cemetery.

Meanwhile, Baldeo Singh’s body was taken to his home at Second Street Montrose for private viewing, after which it was placed under a canopy alongside the Montrose Public Road for further viewing and funeral rites.

Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), Bishop Juan Edghill, strongly condemned what he termed ‘acts of terrorisms’ unleashed against the people of Lusignan and Bartica, and which is adversely affecting the nation.

Outraged, he denounced the act, stating: “Blood is being shed…this is public terror.” (Shirley Thomas and Priya Nauth)