LONDON, 14 July 2005 — As police step up the hunt for the mastermind and a fifth man believed to have been linked to the gang of bombers who last Thursday perpetrated the worst terrorist outrage in England in which at least 52 people died, the government has announced that it plans to introduce an array of tough new anti-terrorist laws.
There is strong speculation that this fifth man organized the Luton end of the operation, and may have been the explosives handler or even the bombmaker. However, anti-terrorist and international intelligence agencies are also hunting for an Al-Qaeda operative, who British police believe was the mastermind behind the bombings and who has since fled the country.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, meanwhile, is to host a summit of Muslim leaders at No. 10 Downing Street next Tuesday in an effort to deal with a potential backlash against the country’s 1.6 million-strong Muslim community and how it can tackle rising radicalism among a minority of young British Muslims.
Police last night carried out nine controlled explosions to get access to a car used by three of the bombers believed to be 19-year-old Hasib Hussein, 30-year-old Mohammed Sadique Khan, and Eliaz Fiaz, to drive down to Luton before embarking on that fateful murderous journey on the Thameslink to King’s Cross where they met up with the fourth bomber, 22-year-old Shezad Tanweer. The car contained explosives which were believed to be unstable; and was subsequently removed for forensic analysis.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke is to start consultations with his opposition counterparts in an effort to get an all-party consensus which would pave the way for a speedy drafting and adoption of the legislation.
This will include new laws banning “acts preparatory to terrorism” and “incitement and encouragement of terrorism”.
The government is also planning to tighten existing legislation including the deportation of radical clerics who are deemed to be poisoning the minds of young British Muslims with hatred and fanaticism; the introduction of tougher border controls; and the issuing of more control orders (house arrest) of those Muslim radicals who are regarded to be a danger to the wider society.
Blair at yesterday afternoon’s Prime Minister’s Question Time in the House of Commons reiterated that the terrorists were driven “by an extremist and evil ideology which is contrary to the teachings and roots of Islam.” He saw an important role for the Muslim community in helping to change the “hearts and minds” of those radicals in their midst. Today Britain will observe a two-minute silence at noon in respect of those who have perished or were injured in the bombings. In a show of solidarity, EU countries will join in a Europewide tribute to the victims of the London bombings.
But as the country comes to term with the shock and reality of the first suicide Brit bombers on home soil, the pressure is mounting on the Muslim community to explain why four young “normal” Brits of Pakistani descent in the prime of their life succumbed to this ideology and acts of suicide and murder.
Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury, the hometown of Mohammed Sadique Khan, warned that British Muslims can no longer live in a state of denial and stressed that Muslims must drive out the extremists from their midst.
“The Muslim community must be and is prepared to confront this evil head on. We have got to accept that there is evil and extremism. It is there and in the most wicked fashion it manifested itself on Thursday. This is a defining moment for this country,” he said.
The cathartic outpouring continues as stunned Muslim leaders line up to condemn unequivocally the acts of their young coreligionists. In Leeds, faith leaders have been tirelessly working to put up a united front and to stem any attempts to divide the communities.
A spokesman for the Leeds Muslim Community stressed that “now is the time for moderation, unity and sensitivity on all sides. We are shocked and saddened that the chief suspects in the London bombings were from West Yorkshire. We send our condolences to the families of those who have died.”
Friends and relatives of the suspected bombers are still trying to rationalize how these young “normal” Muslim Brits could have done these acts under their noses. The older Mohammed Sadique Khan, married with one child and apparently “less traditional” and outgoing, was a youth worker who befriended the other three. Khan according to friends loved his job as a primary school teacher. He is believed to have detonated the bomb at Edgware Road.
Hasib Hussein, the youngest, was a bit of a handful, but suddenly became devoutly religious some two years ago. He detonated the bomb in the No. 30 bus, and was a friend of Shezad Tanweer, who dropped out from a sports science degree at Leeds Metropolitan University to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan to study Islam. That is where he came into contact with the extremists, his devastated parents believe. Tanweer is believed to have died in the Aldgate explosion after he detonated the bomb.
The death of the fourth bomber Eliaz Fiaz has yet to be confirmed, as the identification of the body parts of the victims is proving to be painstakingly slow.
