London bomber was an OBL admirer

Bomber 'had jihad dream'
By Asim Tanveed in Pakistan
July 21, 2005 FRIENDS in Britain thought Shehzad Tanweer's passion was for cricket, but Mohammad Saleem knew his cousin dreamed of giving his life to avenge what he saw as injustices to the world's Muslims.

Tanweer was one of three British Muslims of Pakistani descent believed to have been suicide bombers in the July 7 terrorist attacks that killed 56 people in London.

"Whenever he would listen about sufferings of Muslims he would become very emotional and sentimental," his cousin Saleem, a tall, thin young man of around 20, recalled in Pakistan.

Tanweer, a 22-year-old former sports student from Leeds in northern England, visited his family's old village in Punjab during a trip to Pakistan that began in mid-November last year and ended in early February.

"He was a good Muslim ... he used to tell us about jihad (holy war). He also wished to take part in jihad and lay down his life," Saleem said, adding that Tanweer never mentioned links with any militant groups.

British police say Tanweer set off a bomb on an Underground train at Aldgate station, killing seven people.

"Whatever he has done, if he has done it, then he has done right," Saleem said.

"He knew that excesses are being done to Muslims.

"Incidents like desecration of the Koran have always been in his mind," Saleem said, referring to reported allegations that Islam's holy book had been abused by guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre where the US holds suspected militants.

Tahir Pervaiz, Saleem's father, recalled his nephew's admiration for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"Osama bin Laden was Shehzad's ideal and he used to discuss the man with his cousins and friends in the village," Pervaiz was quoted as saying by Dawn, a Pakistani daily, today.

Pervaiz told the paper that his nephew spent most of his time in the family house before returning to Britain, and seldom joined in cricket games with his neighbours.

Pakistani officials say Tanweer, along with another bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, entered the southern city of Karachi on November 19 and both men left for London via Istanbul on February 8.

Pervaiz told Dawn 'that Khan visited Tanweer in the village several times. According to Pervaiz, Khan had been staying with a maternal uncle in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad.

After Tanweer's death, residents of village Chak Number 477 held a service at the main mosque.

Dawn reported that 2000 people turned out for the service last Friday.

Many people expressed shock that their community should be linked to the terrorist attack on London.

Chak Number 477, around 50km north of the city of Faisalabad, is one of the more prosperous villages in the region.

The better-off live in sprawling villas thanks to remittances from relatives who went abroad, mostly to Britain, in the 1970s.

Tanweer's father was one of those, settling in Britain 1978.

Saleem said Tanweer visited the village only briefly during his last trip to Pakistan, and spent more of his time in Faisalabad at a religious school.

"He was living there in a madrassah," he said.

Intelligence officials say Tanweer may have met Osama Nazir, an Islamist militant who was later arrested in Faisalabad late last year for a 2002 church bombing in the capital Islamabad.

Villager Imran Latif, 20, believed Tanweer had been brainwashed into carrying out the attack.

"We played cricket together but we never thought he would do this," Latif said.

"He was my friend. He used to live with me. Even if he has done it he must have been brainwashed."