Gangster kills Jamaat taxi driver

A Muslim PH driver of Trou Macacque in Laventille was killed Monday night at La Pump Road, Laventille, by a gangster who had allegedly threatened the driver a week ago. At around 8.30 pm, Abdullah Wahid, 27, was shot three times in the head and stomach by a man who had told the taxi driver not to return to the area only one week before, because he did not like Muslims and he would be killed.

According to reports, Wahid had turned his car at the La Pump Road junction after dropping off his last passenger, when the man who was standing in the dark walked up and shot the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen member through the window. Wahid immediately slumped dead at the wheel of the car. When Newsday visited the home of Abdullah’s parents, they were not at home, but the victim’s aunt Eileen Harley described her nephew as a nice, quiet, playful boy and suggested the reason for the murder was because the young boys at La Pump Road did not like Muslims. “While he was born in the area, Abdullah never mingled much and was not known by the boys. Our whole family is like that, and since people did not know us, they aligned us to other Muslim sects in the area with whom they have a war, which is why I believe we were all told that Muslims are not liked and is the reason Wahid was killed.

“It is time the government do something. Either they institute the State of Emergency and curfew or something, because these youths just do not care about life... an innocent life snuffed out. “This is not about poverty and education because the government has several programmes for youth. This is about power, rank and guns. These youths must be stopped. “We want justice.” Wahid, who lived at Sangre Grande after moving out of the family home several years ago, recently moved to San Juan and has been working his father’s car for about four weeks on the Port-of-Spain/Trou Macacque route, when he was killed. He was the second of seven children. Police said they have no motive for the murder, but were bracing for reprisals because the Wahid family is staunch member of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen.