By KERRY-ANN HAMILTON
Associated Press Writer
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – An Islamic leader and five other people detained for questioning in a bombing outside a nightclub in the Caribbean island of Trinidad were released on Sunday, police said.
Friday’s explosion was the fourth bombing in the capital Port-of-Spain in as many months. Ten people were injured in the latest explosion.
Jamaat al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, 63, and four teenagers spent 36 hours in police custody for questioning, Trinidad Police Commissioner Trevor Paul said. Another man detained near the scene of the blast was also released.
«We have released them, but our investigations are ongoing,» Paul said, declining to give further details.
Abu Bakr, who led a failed 1990 coup, was detained along with the four teens late Friday.
Phone calls to Abu Bakr’s office seeking comment went unanswered Sunday.
Kala Akii Bua, a senior Jamaat member, accused police of detaining Abu Bakr without reason.
«Every time a bomb goes off, the Jamaat is blamed for it. We will not be used as a scapegoat,» Akii Bua told reporters Saturday.
In 1990, Abu Bakr’s group bombed police headquarters, stormed Parliament and took the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage in a rebellion that left 24 people dead in Trinidad. The rebels eventually surrendered and were later pardoned.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings and no one has been charged in any of them.