Pantin survived the 1990 Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt and terrorist attack, in which he and other employees of the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) station were held hostage for six days.
[2] He studied at Fatima College, a Roman Catholic secondary school in Port of Spain, and received his diploma in journalism from the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff, Wales.
[3] Pantin wrote the screenplay for the 1974 Trinidadian film, Bim, which was directed by Hugh A. Robertson and starred Ralph Maraj.
[2] On July 27, 1990, Pantin and his colleagues were working at the Trinidad and Tobago Television headquartered when the station was attacked by members of Jamaat al Muslimeen who were attempting to stage a coup.
[2] Pantin and the other captures TTT employees were held hostage in the building by Jamaat al Muslimeen for six days and five nights.
In his book, "Days of Wrath: The 1990 Coup in Trinidad and Tobago," Pantin recalled his reaction to the first moments of the attack, "“I fought to control the tears, feeling sorry for myself and for Trinidad, the place I had grown up in and known, or thought I had known, and loved...I was overwhelmed by it all, fearful that this beautiful island, this extraordinary country of great intellectuals, poets, artists and everyday work people had been assaulted, brutalised, soiled – like the TTT building which seven days ago had been just a normal place to work."