A cleric recently deported from Botswana on suspicions that he was recruiting young Batswana to become suicide bombers has been linked to a Nigerian youngster who tried to bomb an American airline over the Christmas holidays.
The Botswana government recently deported a Jamaican Abdullah al-Faisal, believed to have been recruiting and training young Batswana to become suicide bombers.
Abdullah al-Faisal recently grabbed international headlines when authorities in Kenya also deported him to Gambia, citing his radical Islam and links to a controversial Yemeni cleric who is also accused of having influenced a young Nigerian who attempted to blow an American airliner over Christmas.
Al-Faisal’s native Jamaica would not accept him.
Before he was deported from Botswana, al-Faisal was in the process of acquiring a work and residence permit, which he was denied as he was already under security surveillance.
That was after he was linked to a training camp in a thicket of bushes outside Lobatse.
The camp has since been destroyed by security agents.
Security sources say during his stay in Botswana al-Faisal conscripted some out of school young Batswana to become terrorists, targeting the FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held in neighbouring South Africa by June this year.
While he was in Botswana, al-Faisal had the opportunity to make public lectures at the University of Botswana.
He also conducted another lecture at Boipuso Hall, in Gaborone.
It has also been revealed that besides his public lectures, al-Faisal was a household name in Molepolole and Lentsweletau, where he frequently paid visits.
The Telegraph can reveal that in almost all his visits to these places, al Faisal donated clothes to the needy. This, it is believed, was a ploy to win the hearts and minds of the locals he tried wooing to his radical Islam.
He had also wanted to establish a youth development facility, which he would employ as a pretext to train Batswana to become suicide bombers.
When he tried to enter South Africa from Botswana, the South African authorities turned him back.
It was then that Botswana declared him a Prohibited Immigrant before escorting him all the way from Gaborone to Ramokgwebane border post. He had said he wanted to go to Tanzania.
Director at the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) Isaac Kgosi would not be drawn into discussing al-Faisal’s matter and whether or not his organization was the one that influenced the State President to deport him.
By the time of going to press minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Dikgakgamatso Seretse, was also not available for comment.
