Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, three of his teenage followers and a schoolgirl were still in custody yesterday, waiting to be questioned in relation to the bombing in St James on Friday.
By Darryl HeeralalThe five-and another man held near the blast site-were up to late yesterday being detained at CID headquarters in Port of Spain.
Up to 5 p.m., none of the suspects had been questioned and, for most of the day, Bakr's lawyer, Pamela Elder, SC, remained at the police station.
Paul said the law provides for the suspects to be held for "a reasonable amount of time".
The 15-year-old schoolgirl and the three teenage followers-ages 17, 18 and 19-were arrested on the pavement in front of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen's Mucurapo Road compound about 15 minutes after the explosion.
The girl is a Form Three pupil of the Muslimeen's school and is a non-Muslim. She had remained at the Mucurapo Road mosque to observe the breaking of the Ramadan fast, according to mosque officials.
After arriving at the St James Police Station, Bakr was informed that he was a suspect in the bombing and that he would be detained.
The sixth suspect, a man in his late 30s, was arrested near the junction of Bournes Road and the Western Main Road where a large crowd had gathered. The man was held around 9 p.m. after he reportedly made "certain loud" statements about the explosion that were overheard by plain-clothes officers who were nearby.
Yesterday, at a news conference, when Police Commissioner Trevor Paul was asked whether the six suspects were held on credible information or whether they were rounded up in the name of action, Paul said he would "not simplify it in that way".
Pressed further as to how credible was the information on which the suspects were held, Paul replied that the police had "reason to detain", adding that he did not want to speak on "sensitive" matters.
He said Friday's bombing was still being treated as a criminal and not a terrorist act.
The Muslimeen, on the other hand, has said that the arrest of the four teenagers and Bakr was an indication that the police were "grasping at straws".
"As expected, the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen is being used as a scapegoat by the protective services," Kala Aki-Bua, the Muslimeen's welfare officer, said in a statement. He said the four teenagers had just left the mosque, when they were held.
The father of one of the male teenagers, Ansar Abdal Karim, said he was told by the police that his son was being searched for weapons and was being taken to the St James Police Station. Abdal Karim said the officer, an ASP attached to the Mobile Unit, told him that if the police did not find any weapons on the teenagers, they would be brought back to the mosque.
Aki-Bua said members of the mosque were eating, when they heard the explosion.
The four teenagers had just left the mosque and were walking to St James when the police stopped them. They were made to lie face-down on the road and were then taken away in a marked police car.
Bakr was asked by the police to go to the station. He went and then was taken back to the mosque, where officers from the army, police and Special Anti-Crime Unit raided the compound, using helicopter support.
The raid started shortly after 10 p.m. and finished around 11.30 p.m.
At 11.10 p.m., Bakr was told that he needed to go to the St James Police Station and drove there in his own car, followed by a police vehicle.
There, the police reportedly told Bakr that they had instructions that he had information about the bombing and that he would be detained.
