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Hunt for terror mastermind
Detectives hunting the suicide team responsible for the July 7 terror attacks in London believe they know the identity of the fourth bomber, it emerged today. They think he was a friend of the other three suicide attackers and, like them, lived an outwardly ordinary life in the Leeds area. The men, at least three of whom were Britons of Pakistani origin, died with around 50 innocent victims when they blew themselves up on three packed rush hour underground trains and a bus. Police and the security services fear the bombers could have been acting on the orders of an al-Qaida mastermind and there may be another bomb team waiting to strike. Asked whether he believed they were part of a larger cell Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: "A central hypothesis which has to be tested and investigated is that the individuals we know about were working within a wider community." Detectives were working furiously today piecing together the lives of the bombers as neighbours in West Yorkshire told of their shock that suicide attackers had been living in their midst. The bombers had seemed liked normal young men who had lived in Britain all their lives. Shehzad Tanweer, 22, from Beeston, Leeds, who blew himself up on the Aldgate train, was the son of a local fish and chip shop owner, he loved cricket and football and was a sports science graduate. But friends claimed he had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan within the last six months, prompting fears he may have attended an al Qaida training camp. Mohammed Sadique Khan, a 30-year-old from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, blew himself up on the Edgware Road train, police believe. Like Tanweer he seemed an unlikely suicide bomber. Friends said he was married with an eight-month-old baby girl and that he worked with disabled children in a primary school. At almost exactly the same time - 8.50am - the as yet unnamed bomber blew himself up on a train between King's Cross and Russell Square. Nearly an hour later Hasib Hussain, 19, who lived with his parents in the Leeds suburb of Holbeck, killed himself in the explosion on the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square. When he left his home on Thursday morning, with only a few hours to live, he had told his parents the was going to London for the day with friends. At 10.20pm that day his parents reported him missing to the police casualty bureau, providing one of the vital clues which led detectives to Leeds. Neighbours said he had become "very religious" two years ago. His driving licence and cash cards were found in the mangled wreckage of the bus. Tony Blair was "shocked" to learn that the London bombers were home-grown terrorists born and raised in the UK, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. But the spokesman stressed that the Premier did not believe the root causes of the atrocities lay in tensions within British societies, but could be traced back to problems overseas. The Government will take a "two-pronged approach", involving working both with the police and security services to see whether new anti-terror laws are needed and with the Muslim community to develop methods of steering young people away from radicalism. A Counter-Terrorism Bill, promised in Labour's manifesto, is due to come before Parliament in the autumn and will introduce new offences of preparing for terrorism and encouraging terrorism. The spokesman said the Government would consult with police and security services on whether there are other measures they would like to see introduced, and on whether they would like to see legislation brought forward. "The Prime Minister, like everyone else, is shocked by the bombs, first and foremost, and by the fact that there are people within this country who believed that this was, in their terms, the right thing to do," said the spokesman. "But he is determined that we should take on this extremism, not just by having the right kind of security measures - and whatever we need to do, we will do on that front - but also by harnessing the views of the rest of the community, including the Muslim community, in putting forward that not only has this kind of extremism no place in this country, but also worldwide. "It is his view that this is not a problem that is limited to this country, but it is a symptom of a much bigger problem and we need to look at that." He added: "This problem didn't start in this society, in this country. It started beyond our shores. "Therefore, the issue is not just how we address the problem in this country - and there is no question there is a problem - but how we address the wider issue." Mr Blair's spokesman made clear that, while there were no plans at present to rush legislation through before the start of Parliament's summer recess on July 21, the Government was ready to consider doing so if police believed it necessary. He said the Government would have an "open mind" on any measures which the police thought would help them in the fight against terror. "If the advice from the police is that we need to move in a certain direction and move at a faster pace, we will consider that advice very, very seriously," he said. He indicated that contact had been made with opposition parties on the issue, on which the Prime Minister wishes to proceed with as great a degree of consensus as possible, both within and outside Parliament. "The key thing is that we take measures not just for the sake of taking measures, but take measures that the police and authorities feel will be effective and that we do so with as broad an agreement as possible," said the spokesman. He said that the Prime Minister recognised the Government needs to "step up" work with the Muslim community in order to help them "articulate what is the view of the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community, which is that they want nothing to do with this kind of extremism". He added: "The important thing is that, despite the shock of yesterday's news, the community has recognised that it needs to act and it needs to act now." Posted by: Steve 2005-07-13 |
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