By Frances Abraham and Shabna Ullah
The Subhan family of Bel Air, West Coast Berbice was yesterday attacked by four bandits who invaded their home and business and stole almost $800,000 before abducting a male family member and escaping in the family car.
After the attack, Wazim Sheriff, 36, was forcibly taken by the men to a Mahaicony location before being tied to a post at Yorkshire Dam. The man later managed to free himself and he went to the Mahaicony Police Station and made a report of the incident. The car, licence plate PNN 871, was later found in Mahaicony, with the engine disabled and the key missing.
The men, who carried two guns and a knife, entered the yard of rice farmer Albert Subhan, 56, at Lot 22 Bel Air, West Coast Berbice, with one of them posing as a customer of his grocery, sometime between 10am and 10:30am.
Zabeena Subhan, 28, stated that the men entered through the backdoor and while one man requested service at the shop, the others went into the home and one of them held her at knifepoint. The woman told this newspaper that she was taken upstairs, while her mother, Zulika Subhan, 56, remained in the shop and her father was outside. They were still unaware of the attack.
She said that while upstairs, the bandit demanded that she give him all the family’s valuables and she complied. She pointed out that $500,000 was taken from upstairs—money she was supposed to take to the bank—
while more money was handed over downstairs. Also, a quantity of jewellery was stolen, the value of which was estimated at $250,000.
At this time, the woman said her brother-in-law, Sheriff, and an 11-year-old wheelchair-bound nephew, Faraad Subhan, returned home and were both slapped and pushed around by the bandits.
According to a police press release, Sheriff’s .32 pistol and ammunition, along with $8,000, were taken away.
The woman’s father was beaten and gun-butted by the men. They threw him out of his hammock and gun-butted and gagged him as well while telling him, “Get up, get up, gi we all the money! Weh all de rice money deh?”
After being treated at the Fort Wellington Hospital, he was later rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital for further medical attention.
According to the injured man, he was outside sitting in his hammock when he noticed three men entering the yard.
“Meh daughter and wife been standing at the front and they pass them and come and feel fuh see what I got in meh pocket but I didn’t have anything,” the man recalled.
He further stated that one of the men then gun-butted him, leaving him in a daze. Subhan said he was then beaten about the body while on the ground. Imprints of the weapon used to attack the man were still visible on his body.
He said after the ordeal, the men all boarded the family’s car and left the scene.
The man was required to have a wound to the head stitched before having an x-ray done at the hospital to determine if he had suffered any internal injuries.
Abduction
Sheriff, of No. 4 Village, entered the yard while the bandits were still there but he did not suspect anything was amiss. He had gone to borrow a Toyota Spacio motorcar, PNN 871, belonging to his brother-in-law to go to Georgetown. The men forced him into the same car and drove away with him.
The car ran out of gas and the bandits headed about one mile down the Yorkshire Dam at Mahaicony, where they abandoned him and the car.
But not before stripping him down to his underwear, binding his hands behind his back and beating him.
Before escaping they threw away the car key, which was later found as well as the other keys they took away from the house.
After they left, he untied himself and walked out of the dam and went to the Mahaicony Police Station and made a report. His wife, Ameena Sheriff, related to this newspaper that while in the car the bandits allowed her husband to make a phone call.
He called her brother, Omar and told him he was kidnapped. Not aware of what had transpired, Ameena placed a call to his phone and strange voice answered and gave him the phone. Thinking that she had learnt of the ordeal by then, he told her, “Babe, I love you and I am ok” and she was puzzled. At
, Ameena Sheriff”]
the same time, her brother, Omar Subhan called on the other line and told her, “Bandits gone with Wazim.”
She called his number again but no one answered. She then used another phone to call and a bandit picked up. She gave the phone to his brother who inquired what they wanted.
They responded that he should “give them $30M and then they would release him or he is a dead man. They told him to reach him on Corentyne and then they hung up.”
About 45 minutes later, she received a call from her husband, who was at the Mahaicony Station by that time. He told her he was okay and that she should take clothing and the spare key for the car for him.
