Police still baffled over kidnapping of Iranian
Stabroek News
April 5, 2004
Up to press time yesterday the police were still unable to find a kidnapped Iranian or to establish a motive for the well-planned, bullet-riddled abduction.
The Director of the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies (IICAS), Mohamed Hussein Ibrahim, was dragged from his car by unknown gunmen just outside the institution's premises around 10 pm on Friday.
Ibrahim's wife, Shahnaz, who is eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, told Stabroek News yesterday that neither the police nor anyone else has been able to shed any light regarding her husband's whereabouts.
A police source informed this newspaper that the recently trained anti-kidnapping squad, headed by Assistant Superintendent Watts, has been deployed to track down Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim's wife is praying for his safety and hopes to receive a telephone call or some other form of contact that will provide a clue as to what happened to her husband.
When Stabroek News first visited Ibrahim's residence in Queenstown, a police team was there speaking with the distraught woman.
According to Shahnaz, she last saw her husband at about 8:30 pm on Friday when he left home for the IICAS.
"He said I will go and come back soon after ten minutes," Shahnaz recalled.
But several hours passed and Ibrahim did not return prompting Shahnaz to call his cellular phone around 2 am on Saturday.
Raymond Halley, another IICAS official, who was shot in his right instep during the kidnapping, answered Shahnaz's call and broke the horrifying news to her. Halley, 51, was shot when he attempted to flee from the scene.
Shahnaz said she is shocked by her husband's abduction because he "is a good person and has no problem with anyone". However, this is the second unfortunate experience for the Iranian pair since they came to Guyana just over two years ago.
Five men had attacked Ibrahim and demanded cash while he had been shopping one night in the Stabroek market approximately a year ago. The Iranian had been about to enter his car when he was mugged but had only sustained minor injuries as the bandits had left him alone when it was discovered that he did not have a lot of cash on his person.
The Ibrahims attend the Anna Catherina mosque and some of the members who are acquainted with the Iranian pair have telephoned while a few others have visited to offer their support.
In addition to his work at IICAS, an institution that offers studies in various subject areas including Mathematics, Spanish and Islamic teachings, Ibrahim operates a distribution service selling carpets and other similar products from Iran to local retailers.
Shahnaz told Stabroek News that she has not eaten since her husband's abduction and sleep eludes her, replaced only by an unceasing anxiety.
She and her husband belong to the Shia group of Muslims in Iran and their relatives in that country have been alerted to the situation.
Reports at the time of the incident indicated that Ibrahim appeared to be the target of a well-planned attacked. Four bullet holes could be clearly seen in the bonnet of the IICAS Director's vehicle, PJJ 509, a white AE 192 Toyota Carina which appeared to have been hit in the right front side.