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By
Dominic Kalipersad
Canada has deported four Trinidadians, two who this week completed
a jail sentence for plotting terrorist attacks and two believed
to be their “close associates.”
The ex-convicts are Barry Adams, alias Tyrone Cole, 49, and
Wali Muhammad, alias Robert Johnson, 49, who were believed
to be members of Jammat al Fuqra, a Pakistan-based terrorist
group.
The militant religious sect is reputed to advocate the purification
of the Muslim religion through violence.
The men had been imprisoned in 1994 for conspiring to set
off bombs in a Hindu temple and a cinema in Toronto.
After serving their full sentence without parole, they were
deported on Wednesday afternoon along with Dominican Republic-born
Amir Mohammed Ahmed, alias Caba Jose Harris, 62, the third
man convicted for involvement in the terror plot.
Canada Border Services Agency communications manager Anna
Pape, in a telephone interview from Mississagua, Ontario,
yesterday, said the three were deported with a police escort
after serving 12 years in a federal penitentiary.
Pape told the Guardian the men had been arrested in October
1991 “while trying to enter Canada from the United States
at the Niagara Falls border on Rainbow Bridge.”
Media reports state that during a search of their car, Canadian
border guards discovered bomb-making materials and detailed
plans to simultaneously set off two explosives at a Hindu
temple on Yonge Street and a Hindu movie theatre in east-end
Toronto.
The 1993 trial revealed their plan was to place pipe bombs
next to natural gas lines and set them off at a time when
both buildings would have been heavily occupied.
According to the Montreal Gazette, “A terrorism expert
who testified during the trial theorised the intent of the
bombings was to send a message in support of the Muslim state
of Kashmir’s struggle for independence from India.”
Prosecutors claimed the three had been living in Texas under
aliases for several years before attempting to carry out their
plan
In their defence, the men claimed they were preparing a documentary
video for Muslims in Kashmir.
They were convicted in 1994 of conspiracy to commit mischief
and endanger lives.
Just months before Adams, Muhammad and Ahmed reached their
statutory release dates on April 11, 2002, Correctional Service
Canada placed them under a special detention order, which
meant they could be held for their entire sentence.
The detention orders were reviewed annually and each time
the National Parole Board decided to maintain their incarceration.
About
the Jammat al Fuqra
THE Jammat al Fuqra was founded in the 1980s by a Kashmiri,
Shaikh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who once traveled often to the
US and the Caribbean to recruit members from Pakistani immigrant
communities.
According to reports, the fundamentalist group has attacked
Hindus and Muslims regarded as heretics.
American officials believe the group was behind 11 murders
and firebombings in the United States in 1998.
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