Several Citizens Fighting for Islamic State, Says Trinidad Security Minister

The national security minister of Trinidad & Tobago said Wednesday that several fellow citizens had traveled abroad to help militant groups like Islamic State.

National Security Minister Gary Griffith said that foreign intelligence agencies informed the government about the involvement of its citizens in militant activities in other countries.

Griffith said that some of the citizens taking part in the militant activities were fighters while others were providing financial and logistic support to the groups.

However, he declined to reveal the exact number of people who had gone from the country for joining extremist groups.

"What we are concerned about now, and a decision has to be made on this by the National Security Council, is how we deal with such persons who have gone to the Middle East and now want to return here," Griffith told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, a Trinidadian mother confirmed that her 29- year-old son left the country a year ago to join Islamic State.

Shane Crawford, aka Asadullah, sold off his valuables including a van and a TV for airfare to undertake the journey, his mother said.  Taking one of his wives with him, Crawford first traveled to Venezuela,then to London and Turkey before reaching Syria, she said.

In October 2011, police had detained Crawford and 15 other men on suspicion of taking part in a plot to kill Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three Cabinet ministers. But they were not charged.

Crawford's mother said after his detention her son was scared of going out. "He would stay inside and play his games, he liked videogames," she said of the youngest of her six children.

"Not everyone can take oppression. You lash out in different ways. He left to fight. He believes in what he is doing," she said, reports Reuters.