The police have confirmed that the suspected al Qaeda terrorist whose name is given as Adnan Gulshair Mohamed El Shukrijumah is currently the holder of a Guyanese passport.
This passport, a police press release stated yesterday, was issued on June 4, 1999 in Washington DC by the Guyana Consulate. Prior to this, he was the holder of a passport issued on June 4, 1984.
According to the release, Adnan Gulshair Mohamed El Shukrijumah is Saudi Arabian by birth and is categorised as a Guyanese by descent, making him therefore eligible to be the holder of a Guyanese passport. His father, Gulshair Mohamed El Shukrijumah, is Guyanese by birth.
The father, as well as the two sisters and two brothers of Adnan Gulshair Mohamed El Shukrijumah, are also holders of Guyanese passports.
In an interview with Stabroek News from his home in Miramar, Florida, the father, Gulshair Mohamed said that he had lived in Providence where he worked as a tailor before his departure from Guyana in 1962.
He told Stabroek News that he was very active in Islam and was offered a job in Trinidad. He then closed his business and took up the offer. After working in Trinidad for two years, he was offered a scholarship from the Egyptian government to pursue Islamic studies.
After completion of his studies in 1967 he did further studies in Saudi Arabia where he met and married a Yemeni woman. His son Adnan, now 27, was born in Saudi Arabia in 1975.
"In 1978 while employed as a missionary I was posted in Trinidad. I lived in Caroni, Trinidad, and was the Imam for the Islamic Centre until 1986, when the Saudi Arabian government transferred me to New York," El Shukrijumah said. He said that he did not confine his religious activities to only one mosque.
He told this newspaper that he retired in 1995. He then brought his family from Medina, Saudi Arabia, and moved to Florida because of the cold temperatures in New York.
He continued his Islamic activities and worked at mosque in Florida until his removal on Tuesday because of his son being suspected of terrorist activities.
He said that he had not heard from his son in months and the last time they had spoken, Adnan was teaching English in Morocco.
The police had been advised by the United States embassy to be on the lookout for El Shukrijumah, suspected to have links with the al Qaeda terror network.
The police yesterday confirmed that efforts were being made to address the other matters on Adnan Gulshair Mohamed El Shukrijumah which were published on various news websites.