Bandits on Sunday evening assaulted Essequibo businessman Zahid Sabar and his family and threatened to abduct his four-year-old son before escaping with millions in cash and valuables.
Sabar operates the N. Sabar Cell phones Connection at Vilvoorden, Essequibo Coast.
On Sunday at about 20:00hrs, the 27-year-old businessman said he had just returned from the mosque with his wife and two young sons when he was attacked by seven men who were armed with guns and a cutlass.
“I was just opening my gate to come in and one of them run and get my wife and put a cutlass on her neck; the others were [with] machine guns,” he told the News Room in a telephone interview.
Sabar said one of the men then held on to his two sons [ages 2 and 4] and instructed him and his wife what to do.
Prior to their arrival, the suspects reportedly visited the home of a neighbour where they tied up the owner, his wife, his mother and son, as they awaited the return of Sabar.
Sabar said that the suspects, who were all masked, tied up him and his wife and beat him in the head with their guns while kicking him about the body.
In videos sent to the News Room, Sabar can be seen bleeding from the face. Blood stains can also be seen in different parts of the house.
The men then proceeded to ransack the house.
The businessman estimated that $7M in cash, along with cell phones worth some $5M, were taken from the business.
“I had to give them because they hold my son as ransom; they were going away with him and they hold knife on his neck and so forth,” he recounted.
He also criticized the Police who, by noon Monday, had not yet visited the home to begin their investigations.
“Up to now, at this moment, no police never came to my place to do anything,” Sabar told the News Room at around 12:20hrs on Monday.
Zahid’s brother, Fazid Sabar told News Room that last evening, the Police told the family that they did not have a vehicle to visit the scene.
As such, he went to transport them to the location but they still indicated that they needed directives from “high authorities” to launch an investigation.
However, Commander of ‘G’ Division, Khali Pareshram, sought to debunk the allegations and told News Room that Police officers visited the location Monday morning.
He said an investigation has been launched into the report of an alleged robbery.
