YASIN Abu Bakr, leader of a Muslim faction responsible for the 1990 attempted coup in Trinidad and Tobago, has been arrested in connection to a bomb attack on a bar that injured 10 people, police said overnight.The bombing at a popular night spot on the outskirts of Port of Spain late on Friday was the fourth such attack in four months, but Bakr, head of Jamaat al Muslimeen, has not been linked to the previous three bombings, according to Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul.
Bakr was one of the six people arrested and being questioned in connection to the bomb blast Friday at Smokey and Bunty's bar in the city of St James on the outskirts of Port of Spain, Paul said.
Four of the six arrested are minors under age 19 who gave their home address as the headquarters of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, also located in the city of St James, he said.
Paul said that the material used in the first three bombings appears to be similar. Evidence from the fourth bomb, an improvised low intensity explosive device, is being analyzed, he said. A statement released by the Jamaat al Muslimeen states that the organization categorically condemns the bombing.
In 1990 Bakr and members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen bombed police headquarters and stormed the Red House and national television station TTT. Then-prime minister Arthur Robinson was shot in the leg and more than 20 people died in the failed coup attempt.
Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island, gas-rich Caribbean state off the Venezuelan coast. The island is shared largely by two ethnic groups, one of African descent and the other descendants of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent.