ANOTHER CHILD SNATCHED

“DADDY!” With this last, loud cry, ten-year-old Vijay Persad was snatched and taken away by three armed bandits from his father’s businessplace on the ground floor of their Princes Town home on Monday night. Persad is the latest kidnap victim, after the recent snatching of four-year-old Saada Singh, who was returned safely to her parents with no ransom paid, and Marc Prescott, who was abducted over a year ago and has not been seen or heard since. These three “kiddie kidnappings” all occurred in South Trinidad. Up to late yesterday, with Princes Town and Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) police still carrying out investigations, Newsday was told that no ransom demand had been made to Persad’s worried family.

Ten-year-old Vijay of Indian Walk, Moruga Road, Princes Town was reportedly closing the front door of his father’s small shop — R Persad Groceries and Snackette — at around 8 pm, when three unmasked men walked up to the shop and demanded to be let in. Recalling the horrific incident to Newsday, a worried Rajkumar “Denis” Persad, father of the kidnapped boy, said his son’s screams were still echoing through his mind. Rajkumar said he was behind the counter of his small shop, packing stocks into the refrigerator with his four children — Vijay, Malini, 13, Sanjay, eight, and Anna, two. All of them, except Vijay, stood next to Rajkumar as he packed the refrigerator. Vijay, the worried man said, was on the other side of the counter about to secure the front main door to the shop, when three unmasked armed men walked up to the shop and announced a hold-up.

“The men demanded that I open the front door, but I refused. Then they asked again in louder tones, this time threatening to take my son if I did not comply, but I again refused thinking they were not serious,” Rajkumar said. “Then one of the men grabbed Vijay and ran over the road where he disappeared in some nearby bushes,” the worried father said. Rajkumar added that since Monday night, his son’s abductors had not made contact with the family for any ransom demand or word that the boy was alive and in good health. “I have heard nothing at all,” he said.

Family member Roland Persad said something needed to be done to curb the upsurge in crime in the country. “There has to be some kind of stiffer penalties for people who engage in illegal acts,” an emotional Persad stated. He then pleaded with Vijay’s abductors, claiming the boy was an asthmatic and needed his medication. “I hope the men who took Vijay would set him free and that he is okay. But he really needs his medication. Please let him go...please,” Persad cried. Police sources said they had information about the abduction, but had made no “concrete progress as yet.” Snr Supt Joseph Nathaniel is investigating.