Two-year-old Umar Ali underwent medical treatment at the Sangre Grande Hospital late last night, after being rescued by officers of the T&T Police Service.
The child’s mother, Adeeba, 18, confirmed to Guardian Media that she was contacted by the police sometime after 4 pm and told that her child had been found, having been abandoned by the suspect when he realised police and a search team were closing in on his location.
In fact, police last evening said the suspect remains at large and is now believed to be hiding deep in a forested area off Barkar Trace in Sangre Grande.
Speaking with Guardian Media last evening while at the Sangre Grande Police Station, the child’s uncle, Habib Ali, said they were told that the police received a tip-off that the suspect and the child were in a forested area off Barkar Trace, near where the suspect lives.
The police contacted members of the Hunters’ Search and Rescue Team, led by Shamsudeen Ayube, who subsequently made the trek about 300 feet into the forested area off Barkar Trace in search of the child and suspect.
“They found Umar sitting in a hammock under a makeshift tent in the bush. They didn’t find the suspect because it look like when he hear the police and hunters coming in, he fled deeper into the forested area, leaving the child behind. Umar was rescued and taken to the Sangre Grande Police Station, where his mom and I went and met the police to fill out some paperwork,” a relieved Habib told Guardian Media in a telephone interview.
“After that, they will take us together with the child to the hospital for a thorough medical examination to check to see if there are any injuries and other things they’d be looking for I guess,” he added.
Earlier yesterday, when Guardian Media visited the child’s mother, she had called on her son’s abductor to return her son safely.
“I am worried about him. I don’t know if he eating or drinking,” a worried Ali said tears flowing from her eyes.
“You who take the child, you is the only person who could bring him back and I am begging you please bring him back because I am very worried and I need my child and I would not send anyone for you again. He just really need to come back home to me.”
The child’s paternal grandmother, Zorida Mohammed, was also visited by the Guardian Media’s team, where she also called for the boy to be brought back home to his mother.
“I wish he (referring to the suspect) bring back the child wheresoever he is. I don’t know where the child is because I personally would have go and take the child and bring it. Get somebody to go for the child.”
Mohammed said she knew the close male relative who took the child but added that she had not seen him or heard from him since the abduction last week.
However, Guardian Media was told that after our team left Mohammed’s residence at Barkar Trace, someone from the area called the police and tipped them off on the whereabouts of the suspect.
The police then notified the Hunters’ Search and Rescue team and together met up with them and trekked into the forest where they later found little Umar alone.
One week ago, two-year-old Umar was snatched by a close male relative from his home in Sangre Grande. The child was asleep at the time.