An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Less than 24 hours af­ter po­lice of­fi­cers res­cued kid­napped pen­sion­er Za­hir Khan in Mor­vant, se­nior of­fi­cials as­sured they have not giv­en up the search for busi­ness­man Shashi Anand Ram­per­sad, who was grabbed three weeks ago and re­mains miss­ing.

Khan, 69, of Bam­boo Set­tle­ment #1, Val­sayn, was grabbed by three armed men at 10.55 am on De­cem­ber 14 as he stood in the front yard of his home.

He was res­cued around 5.20 am on De­cem­ber 16 in an aban­doned house on Small Street, Sec­ond Cale­do­nia, Mor­vant.

In a re­lease on Mon­day, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) re­newed the call for Ram­per­sad’s kid­nap­pers to re­lease him, as they warned that they would be re­lent­less and un­wa­ver­ing in the ef­fort to find him.

Khan’s res­cue, which was spear­head­ed by Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Suzette Mar­tin, and ASP Stan­ley of the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit, was based on a strate­gic, in­tel­li­gence-based op­er­a­tion that un­fold­ed in the ear­ly hours of De­cem­ber 16.

The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed in a re­mote hilly area off Grena­do Street, Sec­ond Cale­do­nia—com­mon­ly re­ferred to as Egypt—where of­fi­cers searched sev­er­al aban­doned struc­tures. 

Khan was found in a wood­en, gal­vanised struc­ture by of­fi­cers who were alert­ed by his faint cries.

He was lat­er tak­en for med­ical treat­ment be­fore be­ing re­unit­ed with his fam­i­ly.

His res­cue in­clud­ed teams from the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit (SIU); Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB); Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Task Force (NOTF); North-East­ern Di­vi­sion (NED) Gang Unit; and Air Sup­port Unit. 

While there was no word up to yes­ter­day on the ar­rest of sus­pects, the top cop said every ef­fort was be­ing made to lo­cate and ap­pre­hend those re­spon­si­ble.

Of­fi­cers re­cov­ered an AK-47 ri­fle with 12 7.62 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion that had been aban­doned by one of the sus­pects as he fled the scene. 

Prais­ing her of­fi­cers for their ded­i­ca­tion and courage, which she claimed was a tes­ta­ment to their com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing and serv­ing the pub­lic, the top cop ap­pealed to those re­spon­si­ble for oth­er kid­nap­pings, in­clud­ing the on­go­ing case of Ram­per­sad, to re­lease the vic­tim im­me­di­ate­ly. 

She vowed, “The TTPS will be un­re­lent­ing in its mis­sion to pro­tect the mem­bers of the pub­lic and to hold per­pe­tra­tors ac­count­able. We in­tend to en­sure that any per­son held hostage is found and safe­ly re­unit­ed with their loved ones.”

Ram­per­sad, 36, of Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, is the own­er of Jit’s Stock Pile, South­ern Main Road, Ch­agua­nas.

He was kid­napped from Pierre Street, Lendore Vil­lage, En­ter­prise, around 1.45 pm on No­vem­ber 21.

At the time, he was de­liv­er­ing a load of sand for a cus­tomer when he was forced in­to a sil­ver Nis­san Ver­sa at gun­point by two masked men.

When Ram­per­sad was snatched, his FU­SO Can­ter truck had been idling in the open yard of a res­i­dent, with the keys in the ig­ni­tion and his cell­phone in­side.