Backtrack tragedy: Three arrested in Suriname, search continues for NA woman

Police in Suriname have arrested three persons in connection with the Number 63 Beach “backtrack” mishap which left two persons dead and one still missing.

In a release on Friday, the Dutch Police stated that a taxi driver and two fishermen were detained pending an investigation into the incident. The release stated that the police in the West Region Research Division were notified by the Guyanese authorities on February 8, that a boat had sailed from Suriname to Guyana and that three people were missing.

As such, members of the research team immediately launched an investigation, which found that a fishing boat, with presumably two women and a man, had sailed from Visserij Centrum (Fishing Centre) in Zeedijk, Nickerie district towards Guyana. The police in Suriname subsequently received a missing person report on Tuesday from the relatives of Sharida Hussein and Baboni Harrihar.

Upon further investigation, the three persons were arrested on February 10. They were identified as 57-year-old taxi driver D.N. called “Bim” and the two fishermen, H.L. (51-year-old) better known as “Rako” and the 55-year-old R.R. alias “Tjing Bai.”

Meanwhile, the search continues for 48-year-old Sharida Hussein of Pilot Street New Amsterdam. Her son, Joshua Samaroo revealed that police recovered some of her documents including her medical, passport, identification card along with her travelling bag and a personal handbag on the Number 70 Foreshore, in East Berbice-Corentyne on Wednesday.

Samaroo and others have been searching for his mother for the past three days on both land and sea in various areas with the hope of finding her but to no avail.

On Friday, before sunrise, the young Samaroo, his friends and relatives made another trip along the Corentyne Coast where they have been combing the shores along Number 50 to Number 78 Village.  They will continue to search throughout the day.

The bodies of 77-year-old Baboni Harihar of Percy Smith Street, Palmyra Village and 30-year-old Alwin Joseph were recovered earlier in the week.   The trio was on their way back to Guyana from Suriname via the backtrack route in a speed boat when they informed relatives that they were dropped off in waist-deep water on the sandbank in the dark on Tuesday night.

Guyana’s borders with Suriname has been closed since March 2020 in an effort to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus. As a result, many persons have been using the backtrack route to conduct business.