London Bomber Idolized Bin Laden
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LAHORE, Pakistan – The Liverpool Street bomber described Osama bin Laden as “my personal hero” and spoke of his hatred of American attacks on Muslims around the world, his relations in Pakistan said yesterday.
Shehzad Tanweer, 22, twice visited the village of Kottan in Punjab where his maternal uncle, a landowner named Tahir Pervez, lives with his extended family in a large, single-story house.
Last Friday, more than 100 friends, relatives, and villagers gathered at their mosque to offer prayers for Tanweer, followed by a remembrance service.
His cousin, Ashfaq Ahmed, who as a 21-year-old was a near-contemporary of Tanweer, described him as a devout Muslim who prayed five times a day and would fast from dawn to dusk on Friday and Saturday.
“He was a good man,” he said. “He wore a beard and the shalwar kameez. If you woke up in the night, sometimes he would be praying on his mat.”
The family said Tanweer stayed in the family home for three months until February this year, except for two visits to an aunt in a nearby town. Tanweer arrived in Karachi on November 19 last year with the eldest bomber, Mohammed Siddique Khan, 30, who is believed to have mentored Tanweer and the other younger bombers.
The family said Khan twice dropped in to see Tanweer during his stay, remaining in the family home overnight. “They seemed like they were great friends,” Mr. Ahmed said. “They would talk and laugh together. They certainly did not do anything suspicious.”
Tanweer was keen to discuss religious issues and often railed against America and the West, Mr. Ahmed said. “He said bin Laden was his hero and everything he did was right,” he said. “He believed that America had made Muslims suffer all over the world.
“He also used to say about Kashmir that India was committing great atrocities against the Muslims.
“When his father in England gave him money to buy clothes, he would not spend it on himself, but for buying coats for those waging the jihad in Kashmir.”
The family said Tanweer first visited the village in 2002 with his father Mumtaz, but at the age of 18 or 19, he appeared less devout.
Tanweer was working with the pacifist Tablighi Jamaat, whose volunteers are devoted to spreading Islam.
Mr. Ahmed said: “He loved staying in Pakistan. He used to say society in England was moving in the wrong way and he wanted to study his culture.”
