Ahmads Still Seek Answers on Hattieville House Raid; Police Silent

Fareed Ahmad

Another sore spot for the Ahmad family, aside from the murder of their loved one, is the rounding up of its members back in 2016 by the Special Branch of the police department.  During that operation as many as twenty persons, including pregnant wives, young children and grandparents, were taken into police custody and held for a period of fifteen hours.  During that time, the officers ransacked their homes in Hattieville and confiscated all electronic items.  This was done while the family was denied telephone access to an attorney.  Altogether, both incidents have left the Ahmad’s with an understandable feeling of paranoia that they are being targeted by the state.  This afternoon, spokesperson Nuri Muhammad conveyed the family’s displeasure, stating that Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie, who was present at the meeting, refused to provide an explanation for the predawn raid.

Nuri Muhammad

Nuri Muhammad, Spokesperson for Ahmad Family

“If you remember, the entire Ahmad family was rudely picked up and detained for over fifteen hours.  All of their personal electronic equipment taken, their homes searched and no, no, up to today, no explanation was given to the family and the family spokesperson said today that they are still waiting for the Commissioner of Police to say why did you raid our house?  Why did you take up twenty members of our family, including pregnant women, grandmothers, grandfathers?  And today, all we got from the commissioner is that he is satisfied with what happened, it happened under his knowledge, he acknowledged it happened, but he could not, even today, explain to the family in fact why that happened.  So I am saying, with all the good effort and I do not in any way question the genuine effort of Mr. Elrington today, he spoke very passionately and very personally of his own experiences and he pointed out where, from a legal standpoint, the actions of the police were unjustified and illegal.  But the family, even though hearing that from the policymaker, in the individuals, meaning those who are responsible for the implementation of that policy, something still falls short.  You don’t pickup twenty members of any family, not just Muslim.  No family should be picked up like that, denied of their freedom and held for fifteen hours, let go and there’s no explanation.”