Family slams police run-around

KIDNAPPED Central fisherman Faiz Esahak, 55, was released unharmed by his abductors yesterday morning in Barataria. The $100,000 ransom demanded for his safe release was not paid. Speaking to Newsday at his Dow Village home in California hours after his release yesterday, Esahak slammed the police, saying the officers’ slow response helped the kidnappers escape. “The police response was real bad. They had enough time to intercept the car and save me. Imagine the kidnappers crashed their car but still had time to reach Port-of-Spain and the police did nothing,” Esahak said. An angry Esahak is now calling on National Security Minister Martin Joseph to launch an investigation into the officers’ inaction. Surrounded by relieved, smiling relatives, Esahak, who appeared to be unharmed, said his abductors released him around 7 am in Barataria.

Reliving his ordeal, Esahak said around 3.45 am on Sunday, three armed men visited his home and trained their weapons on his wife and three children. The men, Esahak said, seized $1,200 and grabbed a gold chain from his wife’s neck. They then dragged him out of the room and shoved him into a vehicle parked at the back of his house. After being blindfolded and tied up, he was made to lie on the floor of the car, which sped off. Esahak said he was kept in a forest, “somewhere in the hills overlooking Port-of-Spain.” Expressing relief to be back home with his family, Esahak added, “the kidnappers treated me really well. They did not beat me and fed me biscuits and cheese.”

Also expressing dissatisfaction with the police was Esahak’s daughter Natasha, 30, who said as soon as the kidnappers left with her father, her mother called E999 Rapid Response and Couva police. “They (kidnappers) still had him in the back of the house, because he broke his right foot and could not walk fast. If the police came right away, they may have held the kidnappers. But they never came,” Natasha said. To make matters worse, she added, when the family went to Couva Police Station to make a report around 6.30 am, officers told them that the kidnapping could not be handled by police at that station. “The police told us they did not handle kidnapping and we have to go to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad in Port-of-Spain. When we reached Port-of-Spain, we were told there i s a South branch of the squad and a call was put through to officers there,” Natasha said. Officers from the Anti-kidnapping Squad visited the family’s home around 9 am — almost five hours after the kidnapping — to get information.