Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

A child­hood friend of kid­nap vic­tim Jankie Satie Karim, who has been search­ing for her in forest­ed ar­eas, is plead­ing with her ab­duc­tors to re­lease her.

Vish­wanath Anoop told Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day that Karim and her fam­i­ly are hard­work­ing, hon­est peo­ple and did not de­serve the trau­ma they are fac­ing. He begged for her safe re­lease, say­ing the fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty were shak­en by the in­ci­dent.

“Right now, every­body is dis­traught. It’s like, you know, like every­body can’t func­tion. I just hope that they bring her back safe, please, God. She ab­duc­tors, who have she, if you could just let her go, please, God. If they ask for a ran­som or what­ev­er, and they could pay it, it will be good,” Anoop begged.

Karim, 44, of An­poo Street, Spring Vil­lage, Val­sayn, was dragged out of her fam­i­ly’s white Toy­ota Hilux around 9.50 pm on Sun­day.

Po­lice said three masked gun­men, who were in a blue car, pulled in front of the pick­up, forc­ing it to stop along Bassie Street, Spring Vil­lage—less than a minute’s dri­ve from her home. The men took Karim, the pick­up, her hus­band’s mo­bile phone and $500 be­fore speed­ing off. The pick­up was found around 7 am in Arou­ca on Mon­day.

That same day, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin said no ran­som de­mand was made. Since then, po­lice have not com­ment­ed on the mat­ter, on­ly say­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion is at a sen­si­tive stage.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Karim’s fam­i­ly’s house on Wednes­day, a fe­male rel­a­tive did not com­ment. Asked about a so­cial me­dia post that said the fam­i­ly spoke with Karim in a proof of life call, the woman said, “Go and ask Ian Al­leyne.”

Al­leyne claimed that Karim had spo­ken with rel­a­tives. Yes­ter­day, po­lice of­fi­cers said this was not true.

Karim and her rel­a­tives were vic­tims of a home in­va­sion two years ago, when she and oth­ers were tied up, beat­en and robbed.

In 2023, po­lice said there were sev­er­al in­ci­dents of home in­va­sions in the Spring Vil­lage com­mu­ni­ty, prompt­ing MP Khad­ji­ah Ameen to call on the then po­lice com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher to act.

Asked about the mood of the com­mu­ni­ty since Karim’s dis­ap­pear­ance, Anoop said every­one is con­cerned.

“To tell you the truth, right now there’s a lot of crime go­ing on in this com­mu­ni­ty, in Spring Vil­lage, Val­sayn,” he said, adding that the Karims are “nice peo­ple.”

Anoop said he took days off from work at the Tu­na­puna Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion to search the forests look­ing for his child­hood friend.

“Two days I take off from the work. I try to go around and see if we can find her. So, the last place they get the ve­hi­cle, I’m a hunter too, so I went like all in this area (North­ern Range) where I know about to look for her. So, please God, I just hope they let her go. Please, God.”

Up to yes­ter­day morn­ing, Karim re­mained in the hands of her kid­nap­pers. She was the third per­son kid­napped with­in sev­en days. The oth­er two end­ed with the vic­tims be­ing mur­dered.

The oth­er vic­tims were Scot Timala Ram­baran and Ker­ry Von Adams. Ram­baran was found mur­dered on Ju­ly 10. He went miss­ing two days be­fore his body was found af­ter leav­ing home to pur­chase a car.

Adams’ body was found on Ju­ly 7, two days af­ter he went miss­ing, and a day af­ter a $15,000 ran­som was paid.