http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1312&id=1398412005

Neighbours reflect on 'killer in our backyard'

STEPHEN MCGINTY
IN LEEDS

ON THE crowded but silent streets of London, the wounded hearts of 
7/7 stood. The desolate row of houses in Colwyn Road, in Leeds, was 
where its deranged mind was formed.

A week earlier, Shehzad Tanweer rose long before dawn and crept from 
No 51. He would not live to see noon. His "day trip", with friends, 
would bring death to dozens and horrific injuries to hundreds more. 
Yesterday, the bloody act brought Europe to a virtual standstill.

As the clock hands inched to two minutes to 12, one neighbour on 
Colwyn Road was still playing loud bhangra music. It took a quiet, 
but firm, word from a police officer on duty to shut it down and 
bring him, rather embarrassed, to his front doorstep. Some did not 
bother. One man in a red England cap who lives further up the 
street, outwith the police cordon, said: "You do what you like. I am 
doing nowt."

Another neighbour sat in his doorway reading a newspaper whose front 
page screamed "The Bombers", accompanied by a picture of the boy who 
once played football outside his front door.

The antidote to those rare examples of indifference was Haroon Ali, 
30, who lives at 30 Colwyn Road and whose front garden faces the 
plastic sheeting which now shields the Tanweer family home. His was 
the only family to stand and face the house and reflect for two 
minutes on the evil hatched in their neighbour's bedroom. Even his 
nephews, Tayyiv, two, and Haiber, 18 months, were cajoled into 
submission and silence.

"Two minutes' reflection is the very least we can do," said Mr Ali, 
who knew the Tanweer family well. "This act has devastated the 
street and those who know the family. I don't think we can take it 
on board to have a killer on such a scale in our backyard. When I 
think of Shehzad, I remember a kind and caring person, but look how 
that turned out."

Outside the Hamara Inter-faith community centre, a variety of 
nationalities including Poles, Pakistanis and Indians gathered in 
silence. It was a ravaged community doing its best to bind a wound 
ripped open by three of their own. Before the two-minute silence had 
begun, the centre's director, Hanif Mali, thanked those 
gathered: "You represent the spirit that is prevalent in this 
community.

"We all strongly condemn the attacks that have taken place and it is 
with disbelief that we learn that anybody from our community should 
be involved."

Yet even yesterday, when Britain was united in remembrance, there 
was tension. One man sat in the doorway of a nearby community centre 
with his face covered in an Arab head wrap. "He looks like a f*****g 
terrorist," said Kirsty Quinn, 24. "I tell you, tensions are running 
high round here." In fact, he was a homeless white man.

Just after 11am, police had begun to seal off three streets around 
the Hamara youth centre, a few streets away from the community 
centre, which has no connection with its former home. Seven minutes 
after the national silence, the air was filled with the wail of 
sirens as an army bomb disposal unit arrived flanked by police to 
search the building.

Back at Colwyn Road, the TV station vans were gone and in their 
place sat an ice cream van. For Colwyn Road, however, innocence was 
lost in Aldgate underground tunnel.








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