Several Muslim leaders, including Yasin Abu Bakr who staged a failed coup in 1990, are calling on the Trinidad and Tobago government to shelve plans to introduce legislation amending the anti-terrorism act.

Last week, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said that the Keith Rowley administration would be bringing legislation to Parliament to amend the existing legislation making it much more difficult for anyone to participate in terrorist activities at home or abroad.

“We are now able to come with a very very comprehensive piece of law which seeks to amend the anti-terrorism act of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said, adding “what we are doing is to specifically attending to the deficiencies observed in the …anti-terrorism marking of Trinidad and Tobago.

“We are allowing for specific provisions to allow us to meet with the United Nations resolutions which we have not been fully compliant on,” he said, adding “what we are expanding the definition of property of funds for terrorism and we are specifically going to include oil and other natural resources”.

But at a meeting in Caroni, in Central Trinidad on Sunday, Bakr, the leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen group, along with representatives of Muslim organisations, including the Islamic Front, Islamic Missionaries Guild and Nur Islam, denounced the move.

Bakr, whose group sought to remove the then ANR Robinson administration in 1990, resulting in the deaths of several people including police officers and one legislator, questioned why the government was not moving to bar persons who had travelled to the United States and joined the army there fighting in Syria and Afghanistan.

Bakr also asked what charges could be laid against Trinidad and Tobago nationals reportedly detained in Turkey when they sought to cross the border into Syria.

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