Two streets in St Augustine renamed in honour of Israel Khan

TWO streets in St Augustine have been renamed in honour of Senior Counsel Israel Khan. The renaming of Deenah Street and Ganga Street to Israel B Khan Street and Israel B Khan Extension was announced in a notice in the Gazette on June 11.

The notice, signed by CEO of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation Kofi Chapman, said residents petitioned the council, which approved the renaming on February 29. The petition was in recognition of Khan’s contribution to the criminal justice system. Khan, 78, said the streets named after him were where he grew up.

In an interview with Newsday, he said he was humbled.

“I feel good about it.”

He also said his parents, now deceased, would have been elated and proud.

“I have very fond memories of growing up in that area.

“I could vividly recall living in a cramped wooden two-room house with four siblings, two grandmothers and my father and mother.

Eight people in this little abode, with an outside dirt kitchen with a thatched roof and a latrine pit. No running water and electricity.

“But in my ignorance, we were happy.”

At 15, Khan and his parent relocated to Railway Road, Arouca where they moved in to their own home with running water for the first time. He said when the new signs are installed, he intends to host a function for the area’s children. Monte Grande is about two miles east of UWI, which borders Pasea in Tunapuna and the Churchill Roosevelt Highway on the south.

Khan has been in private practice for 43 years and is president of the Criminal Bar Association. He was once aligned with the National Alliance for Reconstruction, but resigned from the party in 1992.

He has been a tutor at the Hugh Wooding Law School for the past 36 years and was recently added to the list of advocates of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands.

In 2023, the Opposition nominated him for election as the country’s seventh president by the electoral college of the Parliament but the Government’s nominee, former senate president Christine Kangaloo, was approved.