Three Cities, Four Killers | UK News | the Observer
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity Search Focus special: The London bombs Three cities, four killers Leeds, Lahore and London: one was home to Britain's first suicide bombers; another introduced them to radical Islam; the third was the target of their murderous hatred. Between them lies the key to an atrocity Jason Burke in Lahore, Antony Barnett, Martin Bright, Mark Townsend, Tariq Panja and Tony Thompson The Observer, Sunday 17 July 2005 Around the airport at Lahore, the straight roads laid out by British colonial administrators stretch between neat, whitewashed houses, villas, dusty parks and narrow canals. But in the centre of the city, ragged children run through narrow lanes between high, mouldering tenements, hawkers shout for custom and the stalls selling kebabs and curries are thronged in the evening when the temperature begins to dip. The cluttered skyline is full of wires carrying stolen electricity, peeling billboards and the minarets and loudspeakers of thousands of mosques. This city in western Pakistan is the entry point for many young British Pakistanis. The 1 of 18 4.4.2014 21:02 Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity vast proportion of the Pakistani community in Britain is descended from migrants coming from the rich, fertile farm land around Lahore or from the Himalayan foothills to the north. Many passengers step on to the packed flights from London or Manchester dressed in jeans and T-shirts but walk through the crowded concourse at their destination in the traditional shalwar kameez, the loose cut trousers and shirt favoured locally. Most are coming to stay with their family, looking to learn about the culture, language, society and, often, the religion of their forebears. But a tiny minority come with other plans. Often already interested in the more militant strands of Islam, some of these arrivals from the UK are hoping to find the men whose messages of anger and hate have formed their vision of the world. Some even are hoping to seek out the men who can help them achieve their ambition to take part in jihad, holy war. Some of these young radicals come from Britain's northern cities where large Muslim populations often live isolated and battling with poverty. One of the cities is Leeds, four thousand miles away from Lahore. Here, in the back-to-back terraced streets where the Asian community is concentrated, young men and women grow up caught between two cultures. Often speaking both Urdu and English, most successfully reconcile two lifestyles. A tiny minority do not. Lahore and Leeds have become now become linked by four names: Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay, also known as Lindsay Jamal. These four men strapped bombs to their backs and brought terror to the heart of London ten days ago. Three had been to Pakistan. All had been to or lived in Leeds. Everyone thought they were ordinary. And all are now the central characters in a story that has left feelings of shock and 2 of 18 4.4.2014 21:02 Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity confusion and a simple desire to try, somehow amid the debris of destroyed lives, to learn why and how these four men became the first suicide bombers to attack in Britain. Chapter 1: Football and fighting Hasib Hussain lay sprawled upon the short grass of Cross Flatt's Park, the ribbon of green that borders the red-bricked houses of Beeston. It was four days before the London bombings and the 18-year-old was enjoying a final reefer with childhood friends. As another long summer night in Leeds dissolved into darkness, Hussain betrayed none of the radicalism that would shortly immortalise the teenager as the youngest suicide bomber to strike western Europe. Instead the patter never strayed from the norm: who was going out with whom, who was driving what, who'd found a job. 'When you grow up with someone and smoke weed with them it normally means you're close,' said a lifelong friend of Hussain last Thursday night. On the balmy July evenings before the London bombings, the young men of Beeston had gathered on its narrow streets to trade exaggerated tales involving their preoccupation with fast cars, football, fighting and 'fit' women. Hussain and one of his closest pals, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, seemed normal in every respect, their street credentials enhanced by the fact that both could 'handle themselves'. The imposing frame of Hussain had been toughened by his time at the nearby Matthew Murray High School which is described by those who shared a classroom 'as a violent place, where police were often called. The fights were always between whites and Asians.' Tanweer too could fight his way out of trouble if required. A boxing fanatic, his hero was Mike Tyson. Another of the London bombers, 19-year-old Jermaine Lindsay, would also develop a 3 of 18 4.4.2014 21:02 Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity fanaticism with fighting, eschewing the boxing clubs of West Yorkshire in favour of the region's underground fight clubs. Certainly for Hussain and Tanweer, there was no overnight transformation in their personalities, no single catalyst. The men appear to have adopted a steadily escalating brand of fundamentalism that reached its tipping point at the end of last year and became steadily more radical during 2005 as they drew up plans to murder as many Londoners as possible. Their evolution from ordinary men to international terrorists can be traced to Mohammad Sidique Khan, the oldest of those who ten days ago brought carnage to the capital. Few men were more popular on the streets of Beeston than the 30-year-old family man. Recognised by his sensible sweaters and neat, coiffeured hairstyle, Khan's respectability peaked nine months ago when he visited Parliament as the guest of a local MP. There he was praised for his teaching work. Even now, those who hang about Cross Flatt's Park describe him as their mentor. He remains the man who coaxed them back into the education system; the bloke who took them on canoeing and camping trips to the nearby Yorkshire Dales; the man who bought them 'loads of extra bullets' when he took them paint-balling. Hussain and Tanweer were among those who idolised Khan from his days as a youth worker in Beeston when he had nurtured their love of cricket and football. Yet last summer Khan changed. It was following his final trip to Pakistan. Those who knew him had detected a mood change. Two months after he visited the Commons last October, Khan resigned as a popular teaching assistant at the Hillside Primary School in Leeds. In the same period, Tanweer too was undergoing a profound personal transformation. Last December, he met militant groups linked to al-Qaeda north of Lahore. Days after returning to Beeston, a man he met was arrested for an attack in 2002 on an Islamabad church near a US embassy. 4 of 18 4.4.2014 21:02 Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity It was during this period that clerics in south Leeds also detected the first signs of a growing radicalisation in Hussain. Despite his age Hussain had travelled extensively to increase his understanding of Islam, visiting both Pakistan and also making five trips to Saudi Arabia, twice for the pilgrimage Hajj and three times to visit the holy city of Umra. But for all the visits to Pakistan and to the holy sites of the Middle East, what was it in these young men and where they grew up that turned them into killers? Experts are now examining the role of vibrant homegrown Islam movements in creating suicide bombers. Among those is the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. According to friends of Hussain and Tanweer, Hizb had targeted the Muslim youth of Beeston and its mosques. Although its message is non-violent, critics have warned its teachings can act as an intellectual conveyor belt that can carry believers towards other forms of Islam that condone violence such as al-Muhajiroun, supposedly disbanded nine months ago but still active in Britain. One British would-be suicide bomber from Derby who attempted to blow up a Tel Aviv pub two years is reported to have graduated from reading Hizb literature. Certainly, Hussain's generation would have been seduced by its rejection of orthodoxy such as long beards while tolerating contemporary pastimes such as football. Hizb targeted students at Leeds' two universities. Khan studied at the University of Leeds and Tanweer, who attended the city's Metropolitan University, would know about the movement even though it had been banned from union buildings. Religious advisors in Leeds had repeatedly warned the academic establishments that Hizb was a problem. As recently as last November, a national Hizb spokesman met with officials from the student union of the University of Leeds in an attempt to lift its ban. Other potential influences concern the Iqra Islamic bookshop in Beeston where Khan, Hussain and Tanweer were regular visitors. The store closed suddenly two months ago when its owner returned to Pakistan for family reasons. Officers are today examining its 5 of 18 4.4.2014 21:02 Three cities, four killers | UK news | The Observer http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/17/july7.uksecurity literature for clues to the precise ideology that may have inspired the London bombs.