Three
British Muslims killed while 'fighting for the Taliban'
By
Anna Whitney
29 October 2001
Three
British Muslims have been killed fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, the radical group Al-Muhajiroun revealed yesterday.
Aftab Manzoor, 25, and Afzal Munir, in his early 20s,
from Luton, Bedfordshire, were killed in
action, the London-based Islamic group said. It also named Yasir
Khan, from Crawley, as having died, in US-led bombing raids on the
Afghan capital of Kabul.
Fears
of a racist backlash increased within the area's Muslim community of 20,000
people after pictures of Manzoor's home were
published in a local newspaper.
Two
unnamed American Muslims, who had also joined the Taliban, were said to have
been killed when a missile hit a house where they were holding a meeting.
The
Foreign Office could not confirm the British deaths as the Government has no
diplomatic contact with the Taliban, a spokesman said.
Unconfirmed
reports continued to circulate last night that a fourth British man, Mohammad Umar, had also died. Hasan Butt,
leader of the Al-Muhajiroun in Lahore, Pakistan, said: "We have learned from
our contacts that [the men] were martyred by the American bombing on
Wednesday."
Anti-racist
groups in Luton are worried about the growing numbers of British Muslims they say are
supporting the Taliban. Akbar Khan, who runs the Building Bridges group in Luton, said: "There's
a lot of unhappiness among Muslims here and the rest of the country about the
attitude of the West
