DAR AL HARB - TOBAGO: MOSQUE RAIDED IN TOBAGO

Cops raid mosque

The Directors of the Masjid Al Tawbah mosque on Old Milford Road, Hampden, Lowlands are taking a serious view of the discovery of certain items found in the roof of the mosque's hall on Monday night.

They met on Tuesday following the search of the compound of the mosque by heavily armed police officers when strategies were agreed upon to prevent similar incidents occurring.

The discovery of the items by an electrician led to a raid by 50 heavily armed police officers on the mosque compound on Tuesday. They were armed with a search warrant allegedly in search of arms, ammunition and other illegal items.

However, during the 90-minute search of the mosque's hall and compound they were only able to come up with two masks, duct tape, a dozen tights, number plates and maps in the roof of the hall which also houses the mosque's learning centre and pre-school.

The heavily armed police officers from the Tobago Task Force, CID and Forensic Unit headed by ASP Maurice Dillon and Insp Garfield Moore arrived at the mosque compound shortly before 3 p.m. in a bus and several cars. Some of them took up positions along the quiet Old Milford Road, the nearby bushes opposite and on the roof of the mosque, while others accompanied the senior officers in their search. Kameal Ali, a director of the mosque board who was present on the compound at the time was presented with the search warrant and accompanied the officers in their search. The police party however stayed clear of entering the mosque where two hours before prayers were said by the faithful.

The Masjid Al Tawbah is a stone's throw away from the Official Residence of Chief Secretary Orville London.

The police said they were acting on a tip off from Crime Stoppers earlier in the morning.
Imam Mohammed Sharif who had said prayers earlier was not present during the search.
Ali recalled that on Monday night electricians were working in the roof of the hall when one of them discovered the "strange" items and alerted him. He said the police informed them that they were acting on a tip off from Crime Stoppers they had received earlier.

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Ali said the hall and mosque were open to everyone and could not say who might have hidden the items in the roof. He however stated that about a month ago louvers to the hall were tampered with and he suspected that someone might have been able to enter the hall and hid the items there.

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Ali said Muslims in Tobago were law abiding citizens and did not want to give Tobago a bad name.

"We don't want the public out there to have any misconception of us and if anyone in our community was found in illegal activity he would be dealt with under the law," he said. He described the incident as embarrassing to the Muslim community in the island.



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