Drunken wedding guests stone Imam’s house

Nov 11, 2014 News

…because of noise nuisance complaint

A neighbourhood wedding turned bitter early Monday morning when the residence of Safir Ali Warisali

Broken window of Warisali residence

and his family, who live at 2G Independence Street, La Grange, West Bank Demerara (WBD), was attacked by drunken wedding house guests.
The West Bank Demerara village hosted wedding celebrations this past weekend from Friday. The wedding, according to 63-year-old Warisali, created a nuisance to the area as the noise level was “too loud to bear.” As a result Warisali tried calling the police multiple times to address the noise issue.
However, Warisali, an Imam of the local Masjid, received no response from local authorities on the matter. Moreover, the wedding house did not abide with the man’s request of lowering the volume. The wedding house in question belonged to the headmaster of the West Demerara Secondary School.
Warisali had been forewarned by the owner that his nephew would be using the residence for a wedding.
“The headmaster told me how his nephew will be having a wedding this weekend at the house,” explained Warisali, “I said that it’s alright, so long as they don’t overdo it”.
By early Saturday morning, the noise level was too much for the 63-year-old man to bear. He explained that as a heart patient, the incessant noise proved a health risk for his condition. According to him, he spoke to the music operators who agreed to lower the volume but failed to do so.
It was not until Sunday night that things escalated to the point of violence. Ryan Warisali, the son of the Imam, needed to access the entrance to the residence. However, a wedding guest had parked in said entrance, hindering the son’s access.
“We see the car blocking the entrance and my son went to the wedding house to ask the owner to move the car,” said Warisali. He then related that the men grew hostile towards his son and accused him of calling the police.
After chasing the son back to the Warisali residence, a group of 12 men started

Broken windows of Warisali vehicles

pelting beer bottles and bricks at the home. In the process the men managed to shatter windows of the Warisali home. They left the yard littered with shards of glass.
According to Warisali, one of the men even attempted to enter the residence. He suspected that the men were drunk. Seeing that they intended to enter the yard, he rushed to release his “pit-bulls”.
Meanwhile, Amna Warisali, the wife of the Imam, managed to contact La Grange Police Station to report the entire scenario. The Imam explained that after calling from 20:00hours to 21:30hours the station finally responded by calling the wedding house, which subsequently lowered the music level.
However, the music resumed to its previous level around 22:30hours. At this point Warisali, with the help of a hired car, went to the station and brought an officer to shut down the music entirely.
This angered the party dwellers, and around 00:30hours, after the officer left the scene, the men started pelting more bottles at the residence. The men, who apparently shouted anti-Islamic sentiments to the Imam and his family, continued to attack the home until 4:00hours Monday.
“It isn’t that I don’t want these people to enjoy themselves,” explained the distressed 63-year-old, “it’s just that time and time again, we’ve had this noise problem with these people in the area.” Warisali said that he has reported the matter many times to the police in La Grange and Leonora without results.
The Warisali family has been living at the Independence Street residence for 18 years. A saddened Mrs Warisali related that the noise nuisance, uncooperative neighbours and an unresponsive police force has compelled them to consider moving.
Police have commenced investigations into the incident at the Warisali residence.

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