Panday blames PoS blast on home-grown terrorists

Speaking at a United National Congress (UNC) Monday Night Forum, at Lions Civic Centre, Railway Road, Siparia, Panday said the act was different from what occurred in London’s commercial district last Thursday morning.

"We were not involved in the Iraqi war. Why would international terrorists want to come and bomb up poor Trinidad? We were not involved in the invasion of Afghanistan, so international terrorists are not concerned with us. They don’t know who we are, they don’t care about us," he declared.

"You not talking about international terrorists, you talking about PNM terrorists."

"That was no accident," he declared, "there can be no peace in this country so long as the PNM remains in power."

Panday was critical of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s statement about "Fortress Trinidad and Tobago."

He said the Government was not able to guarantee the protection of its own citizens given the escalating murder and kidnapping rates.

He said with a 16 percent decrease in kidnappings in Colombia, the acknowledged kidnap capital of the world, this country was on course to take over "that dubious mantle" from the South American country.

According to Panday, the "harsh reality" was that citizens were forced to defend themselves.

He said it was meant to send a strong signal to the ruling party by voting for the UNC’s candidate for Siparia South/ San Francique East, Christine Rogers-Deonarinesingh, on July 18.

Also addressing the meeting was Rogers-Deonarinesingh who deplored the high levels of poverty in the PNM-held electoral district.

She claimed residents were faced with rampant unemployment and poor infrastructural development, including inadequate water and electricity supplies.