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Just a short dis­tance away from the pri­vate res­i­dence of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, a fam­i­ly was tied up, beat­en, ter­rorised, and robbed dur­ing a vi­o­lent ear­ly-morn­ing home in­va­sion on Tues­day. Fifty-three-year-old Vi­jay Ra­goo­nanan, a gar­den­er who was beat­en dur­ing the at­tack, said the or­deal has left his wife, Bet­ty Jagdeo, and their five chil­dren, ages sev­en to 23, deeply trau­ma­tised.

“This is hor­ror. I wouldn’t like my worst en­e­my to go through this. It’s re­al­ly hor­ror,” he lament­ed dur­ing an in­ter­view at his Phillip­ine home.

Ra­goo­nanan said his fam­i­ly was asleep when, around 3 am, he heard a loud noise. “When I heard that noise, they said, ‘Po­lice, po­lice,’” he re­called, ex­plain­ing that they had no time to re­act be­fore the front door was kicked open and six armed men stormed in­to the house.