Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardain.co.tt

On the heels of the brazen mur­der of 21-year-old Saleem Ab­dool, the pub­lic is be­ing as­sured that the po­lice are work­ing on mul­ti­ple leads and have in­creased pa­trols in cer­tain ar­eas.

In a me­dia state­ment yes­ter­day, South/Cen­tral As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Wayne Mys­tar said they were work­ing on cred­i­ble in­for­ma­tion to ap­pre­hend the as­sailants.

Ab­dool was dri­ving his com­pa­ny’s Toy­ota Hilux ahead of his em­ploy­er, who was in an un­li­censed Mer­cedez Benz, along the Gol­con­da Con­nec­tor Road on Tues­day. They were on their way to drop off the car to a client. As they slowed down at the traf­fic lights, as­sailants in a brown Kia Sportage opened fire at the Hilux. Ab­dool died while un­der­go­ing emer­gency surgery. The po­lice ini­tial­ly be­lieved that the in­tend­ed tar­get was Ab­dool’s em­ploy­er.

The fam­i­ly owns R&J Cell Tech and an au­to­mo­bile deal­er­ship in Gas­par­il­lo. Ab­dool was em­ployed as a dri­ver.

Just two weeks ago, the busi­ness own­er’s sis­ter was shot at in a sim­i­lar at­tack along the South Trunk Road but she was not in­jured. Back then, her fa­ther, Ra­bindranath Ma­haraj, said it was an at­tempt on her life and that his fam­i­ly had been the tar­get of vi­o­lent at­tacks over the past year. This in­clud­ed the kid­nap­ping of his son, two at­tempt­ed kid­nap­pings of an­oth­er daugh­ter and 14 rob­beries.

In his state­ment yes­ter­day, ACP Mys­tar as­sured the pub­lic that the TTPS was treat­ing “these mat­ters with the ut­most ur­gency and se­ri­ous­ness.” He added that of­fi­cers from the Homi­cide Bu­reau Re­gion 3, South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, and spe­cialised in­tel­li­gence units have been “work­ing around the clock on these re­lat­ed in­ci­dents.”

He said, “We can con­firm that in­ves­ti­ga­tors are ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing mul­ti­ple leads and have gath­ered cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence. Sur­veil­lance footage and key wit­ness ac­counts are be­ing analysed and we are mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant progress in iden­ti­fy­ing sus­pects and mo­tives.”

The ACP said ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures have al­so been de­ployed in and around the Gulf View, La Ro­main, and San Fer­nan­do ar­eas. He re­it­er­at­ed his ap­peal to the pub­lic to as­sist the po­lice with in­for­ma­tion that could as­sist them in ad­vanc­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Mys­tar as­sured that the TTPS re­mains com­mit­ted to dis­man­tling crim­i­nal net­works that threat­en the safe­ty and well-be­ing of cit­i­zens.

“We un­der­stand the pain this tragedy has caused, not on­ly to Saleem Ab­dool’s fam­i­ly and loved ones but to an en­tire com­mu­ni­ty in­creas­ing­ly bur­dened by fear.”

He promised that fur­ther up­dates would be pro­vid­ed as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion pro­gress­es.

Fol­low­ing Ab­dool’s death, Face­book has been flood­ed with posts by friends and well-wish­ers ex­press­ing con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and shock over the cir­cum­stances of his death. Ab­dool, who was al­so a beloved dog han­dler, was de­scribed as po­lite, friend­ly and am­bi­tious.

Al­so com­ment­ing on his pass­ing, St Michael’s Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege post­ed, “It is with deep sad­ness and heavy hearts that we share the news of the un­time­ly pass­ing of our beloved stu­dent, Saleem Ab­dool.

“He was not just a mem­ber of our school com­mu­ni­ty, but a shin­ing light—kind, re­spect­ful, and full of promise.

“He will be missed. We will re­mem­ber Saleem al­ways—with grat­i­tude for the time we shared and sor­row that it was so short. May he rest in peace.”