Trophy-rich athlete who turned to jihad Aldgate, 8.50am: Explosion in third carriage of train bound for Liverpool Street - 7 confirmed dead Sandra Laville and Dilpazier Aslam Thursday July 14, 2005
Guardian In his bedroom at the terrace house he shared with his Pakistani parents and three siblings, Shehzad Tanweer proudly displayed the trophies he won at school for athletics. But by his early 20s the British-born Muslim had developed a passion for something else - Islamist extremism. In the months before he travelled to London to blow himself up on the underground train to Liverpool Street, Tanweer, 22, visited Pakistan to study the Qur'an and Arabic. The rigour of the intensive study seems to have been too tough, however. "He came home after three months because he didn't like the people there," his uncle, Bashir Ahmed, 64, said. Despite this, the experience did not stop the jobless student, who was born in Bradford and moved to Leeds as a youngster, from continuing to immerse himself in radical Islam. "When he came back he started going to the mosque five times a day," said Mr Ahmed. "He continued his studies in education, but there was nothing to show us that anything had changed. He was not a fanatic, but he was a God-fearing person." The day before Thursday's bombings, Tanweer, who lived with his father, Muhammad Mumtaz, a fish and chip shop owner, and mother, Parvaz Akhtar, saw his uncle. There was nothing to suggest what he was about to do. "He was very calm. No one knew he was going to London." Mr Ahmed said the family were devastated by what Shehzad had done. "We are shattered. We are a very close family. We have lived around here for ages. We have lost everything, especially the respect we had in this community. "He was proud to be British. He had everything to live for. His parents were loving and supportive. "They had no financial worries. He was intelligent. He went to university. His plan was to go into sports. The family is shattered. This is a terrible thing. It wasn't him. It must have been forces behind him." Mr Ahmed said his nephew went to Pakistan for two months earlier this year to study religion. But he denied that Tanweer had travelled to Afghanistan and taken part in training camps. "There is no way - I have seen his passport," he said. Tanweer attended the Muslim Association mosque and madrasa in Stratford Street near his home daily. But the imam there denied that the mosque had sent him to Pakistan. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
