Barrackpore family facing death threats, pleads for police to help

Media reports in Trinidad and Tobago say a family that was viciously attacked and chopped by bandits on February 11 has received death threats.

The incident made news headlines for days with reports that villagers fought back the bandits who robbed the home of a young couple, chopped them and were fleeing. One man hit one of the bandits with his car, killing him.

Police arrested the man, Shamzad Ali,and held him for three days without charge. Ali's wife, Angela, told reporters she is now a target and is fed up of running from robbers.

“It seems that the bandits have all the control because I made four reports at the Barrackpore Police Station and nothing is being done to protect us,” the Guardian newspaper quoted Angela as saying.

She accused a former boyfriend of her daughter of setting up the robbery. She told the paper that the suspect who survived the attack by villagers went to court and was given bail. 

 

Ali explained that a few days later she received a phone call in which the caller threatened to kill her daughter, Nisha, and her two children, aged 11 and four.

She claimed that police didn't provide any assistance after she reported the death threats, which continued. “The man told us that we will not live for long and then he hung up,” Angela told the paper.

The woman said on Friday a man drove to the family's home in a van and said, "I will kill all of you" before driving away. She said Nisha and her children have gone into hiding.

Ali is calling on Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs to investigate why officers in Barrackpore have refused to investigate the case and provide help to the family. She is also calling on politicians to do something to ensure her family's safety.