Abducted woman rescued in Mayaro, reunited with family

An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

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Al­most 24 hours af­ter Shah­naaz Ali was ab­duct­ed in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day, she was tear­ful­ly re­unit­ed with her fam­i­ly around 5 pm yes­ter­day af­ter be­ing res­cued by po­lice of­fi­cers in the Ma­yaro dis­trict.

Sport­ing bruised arms and swollen feet, the 31-year-old ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant hob­bled in­to the arms of her par­ents, rel­a­tives and friends who had kept vig­il at her Diego Mar­tin home since news of her dis­ap­pear­ance was con­firmed on Ju­ly 3.

Rel­a­tives said Ali was found tied to a tree in the Ma­yaro dis­trict dur­ing the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing yes­ter­day.

She was ab­duct­ed some­time af­ter leav­ing her place of em­ploy­ment around 5 pm on Fri­day.

A close male rel­a­tive con­firmed her black-and-white Toy­ota Yaris Cross was found parked along Hart Street, Port-of-Spain, with her cell­phone, lap­top and purse locked in­side.

They be­lieve she was forced in­to an­oth­er ve­hi­cle by two men who were al­leged­ly be­ing in­struct­ed by a third on where to take Ali.

Un­able to say much else as to her or­deal and what un­fold­ed af­ter Ali was snatched, the rel­a­tive said the fam­i­ly did not re­ceive a ran­som call from any­one dur­ing the 24 hours she had been miss­ing.

“Thank God she is good,” he prayed.

In­di­cat­ing Ali has suf­fered mi­nor in­juries and was treat­ed at the Ma­yaro Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal, he said the trau­ma she had suf­fered would re­main with her for a long time to come.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers and close friends flocked to Ali’s home yes­ter­day, ex­press­ing re­lief and joy that she had been found alive. But they were tight-lipped as to the cir­cum­stances that had led to her dis­ap­pear­ance.

Close rel­a­tives cred­it­ed the quick re­sponse by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), as well as the Hunters Search and Res­cue Group, for her safe re­turn.

Ali was re­port­ed miss­ing on Ju­ly 3 af­ter she failed to re­turn home from work and calls to her cell­phone went unan­swered.

One woman dashed tears from her cheeks as she claimed Ali’s ab­duc­tion was not an iso­lat­ed in­ci­dent, as Ali had pre­vi­ous­ly re­port­ed threats to her safe­ty.

Rel­a­tives claimed at least three sus­pects were be­ing sought in con­nec­tion with the ab­duc­tion.

They de­clined to say much more, wor­ried that too much in­for­ma­tion could cause the sus­pects who re­main at large to flee Trinidad.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.