OTTAWA, April 6: Canada deported three men late Wednesday with links to a Pakistan-based terrorist group and considered ‘a security risk’ who had earlier been convicted of trying to bomb a Hindu temple, officials said on Thursday.

Barry Adams and Amir Mohammed Ahmed — both from Trinidad and Tobago — and Dominican Republic-born Abdul Baqqer were arrested in 1991 while trying to enter Canada from the United States.

All three are believed to be members of Jammatul Fuqra, “an extremist Pakistan-based religious sect,” Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Anna Pape said.

“This clearly shows that terrorists are not welcome in Canada,” she said.

Border guards discovered bomb materials during a search of their car in October 1991, she said.

The three were convicted in 1994 of conspiracy to commit mischief and endanger lives in relation to the attempted bombing of a Hindu temple and a theatre showing Indian films in Toronto.

“They were deported last night with a police escort after serving 12 years in a federal penitentiary,” Pape said.

Founded in the 1980s by a Kashmiri, Shaikh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who once traveled often to the US and the Caribbean to recruit members from Pakistani immigrant communities, Jammatul Fuqra has attacked Hindus and Muslims regarded as heretics, according to reports. — AFP