Annandale residents save kidnapped teen
Army didn’t chase captors because it was dark
By Nigel Williams
Stabroek News
January 22, 2003
Alert residents of Annandale helped rescue a young man who was kidnapped by three men on Monday evening and taken to the back of the village by Buxtonians.
Members of the Guyana Defence Force who arrived shortly after declined to pursue the kidnappers saying it was dark.
A Guyana Defence Force official who declined to be named told this newspaper that when the soldiers arrived on the scene Hamrit Umrow was still in the hands of his abductors. According to the GDF official, when the kidnappers saw the army vehicle’s headlights approaching they ran. The official conceded that the soldiers did see the abductors but could not shoot at them since Hamrit would have been in danger.
When asked why the soldiers did not pursue the men, the GDF official said the abductors ran into a cane field and disappeared and also because it was night and the place was dark the soldiers aborted the chase. The police did not show up at the scene.
Some residents of Annandale began blocking a section of the embankment road on the same night, while venting their feelings of disgust at what they termed as the government’s indifference to the attacks on them from Buxton. Villagers pulled two huge planks across the embankment along with an old car and set them alight. Up to late yesterday afternoon the remains of the car were still burning while thick smoke was seen ascending in the skies.
Even with the increased military presence in the area 18-year-old Hamrit and his 16-year-old brother Arvind were snatched on Monday night by three armed men who had lain in wait for them a few metres from their yard.
Hamrit spoke to this newspaper yesterday but his brother Arvind has since fallen ill and was unable to speak.
He said that around 7.30 pm, he and his brother left their home just off the Annandale embankment. He said they were sent to purchase ice from a neighbour about two houses away.
While walking they kept their eyes on the road, keeping in mind the dangers the village has been experiencing recently.
They were returning home when suddenly a shirtless man appeared in front of them and two others lying on a slope got up. The teenager related that while he was concentrating on the man in front of him another one appeared behind them.
“I started to walk fast and de one at the back said, ‘hold on deh’,”
Hamrit said he ignored the man and began walking faster but his abductor caught up with him and jammed a gun to his head. “While this happened the two others seized my brother and they all took us aback of the village inside the shell of an old train.”
Once in the old train carriage, the siblings were put to sit and the kidnappers proceeded to give them a lecture on their family’s financial status.
“We hear y’all rich and got a lot of money, right now we want $500,000, so you (referring to Arvind) go and tell y’all family that we get he heh and let them send $500,000 before they get him back, else we gonna shoot him dead.”
Hamrit said his brother left him alone with the three men who were all armed with guns. He said the men continued to question him about his family and also threatened to kill him. He said two of them looked very young while the third man seemed to be in his late 20’s. Hamrit remembered also that two of the men were masked while the other wore a toque.
Once Arvind arrived home he told his father about the men’s $500,000 ransom demand. His father raised an alarm in the village arousing neighbours who responded promptly and arming themselves with cutlasses and other tools they went after the kidnappers.
Hamrit said he and the men were still in the train when they heard the commotion made by the approaching villagers.
The kidnappers then got up and began running. He said he kept sitting and one of them ordered him to run with them or else they would shoot him. He said he complied and was led across a trench into a cane field which leads to the Annandale backlands.
He said while in the cane fields he could still hear the residents and the men led him over another trench which took them into Buxton.
It was while they were in Buxton among some dense bush that the villagers spotted Hamrit and his captors. Villagers flashed a torch in their path, causing the men to make a mad dash for cover, thinking that it was the army. They forgot about Hamrit and began running and later disappeared into the bushes. Shortly after, an army patrol pulled up near the bush and rescued the teenager. He was taken to the Vigilance Police Station where a formal report was made and he was sent home.
Residents of Annandale and the villages surrounding Buxton continued to complain about the situation. Thakur Persaud, grandfather of the boys yesterday called on the President and Home Affairs Minister to visit the village and listen to the residents’ concerns.
“They have to do it now because as it is right now the situation will soon turn into a ... battle.”
He said that residents are planning to stop Buxtonians from passing through the village. Up to last evening the police and army were patrolling the area intensively. A joint services barricade was thrown up at Lusignan and vehicles and passengers were being searched.
Since the eruption of unprecedented crime last year, residents of Annandale, Vigilance, Coldingen, Non Pariel and other villages have been attacked and robbed repeatedly by bandits and over the last few weeks there have been several kidnappings.
