LONDON, 16 July 2005 — The hunt for the masterminds behind the London bombings took an international turn yesterday when police in Cairo arrested an Egyptian chemist, the suspected bomb maker, in the presence of British intelligence officers. Police arrested Magdy El-Nashar, 33, who was studying for a doctorate at Leeds University and had apparently known the fourth suicide bomber, 22-year-old Jamaican-born Lyndsay Germain.
El-Nashar, from the south Cairo district of Izak Fahmy is described as a “brilliant” biochemist who was doing research in the development of immobilization process of enzymes for biotechnology. He was off the radar screen of the British security services like other suspects, and at the time of writing police are looking for a link between him and the bombings.
The news of the Cairo arrest came amid growing pressure on the British secret service MI5 over its failure to anticipate the London bombings. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office has already started an internal investigation into possible intelligence failures leading up to the London bombings.
At the same time President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan spoke to Blair yesterday to offer his government’s full support in the ensuing investigation, after it became clear that at least two of the bombers — Shezad Tanweer and Hasib Hussein — had been to Pakistan where they attended a radical madrasa (religious school). Tanweer is also believed to have had contacts with a member of militant Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“We are concerned about what goes on in some and not all the madrasas in Pakistan, and so is President Musharraf,” said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
There have been suggestions that impressionable young radicals have not only been brainwashed at these madrasas but have also been receiving training in military matters and in the handling of explosives. Pakistan Education Minister Javed Ashraf, speaking to the BBC, denied that there had been any evidence of students receiving military training at the madrasas in recent months.
“We unreservedly condemn any such military training at the madrasas. If the British government has any evidence to support that such military training is taking place at some of the madrasas, we will certainly take action,” he added.
Events surrounding the London bombings are developing rapidly almost on a continuous basis. These deal with the actual investigation; the ongoing clearing-up exercise; the rising death toll and the injured; the engagement with the Muslim community; and political developments especially in tightening anti-terrorist laws.
The attacks claimed their 54th life yesterday when Sam Ly, a 28-year-old Australian, one of the No. 30 bus passengers, died in hospital from injuries sustained in the Tavistock Square explosion. More names of the dead have also been released including Sharaha Islam, a 22-year-old Bangladeshi woman, and Anthony Fatayi-Williams, a young Nigerian oil executive, whose mother Marie made an emotional appeal against terrorism on the day after the bombings.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke is now thinking of introducing further legislation which would outlaw “acts preparatory to terrorism” and “the encouragement and incitement of terrorism”.
The aim is to introduce a law which would make it illegal to provide and train unauthorized people in the use of hazardous substances, such as acetone peroxide, also known as TAPT, the homemade explosive that police found in a bath tub in a house in Alexandra Grove in Leeds and in the car parked at Luton station.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair confirmed that TAPT, which is dubbed ‘The Mother of Satan’ by Al-Qaeda, “is the same type of explosive which was used by shoe-bomber Richard Reid. The London bombings bear all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda — the simultaneous explosions and the dead foot soldiers. The ingredients to make TAPT can be bought over the counter at chemist shops in the UK and the explosive is said to be highly volatile hence the evacuation procedures in Leeds and Luton.
According to Sir Ian, the bombs were “sophisticated but homemade. They were very sophisticated in the way they were made.” This has confirmed suspicions that an unknown number of Al-Qaeda operatives with expertise in explosives were involved in masterminding and orchestrating the bombings.
Police are searching for more possible stockpiles of the explosives and have warned that there may be up to 50 more potential suicide bombers in Britain willing to carry out attacks.
Muslim community leaders have also come under increasing scrutiny and pressure to put the community’s house in order with regard to containing radicalism and rooting out the fanatics. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, spent the day in Leeds “engaging” with the Muslim community.
Earlier he rejected a claim by Sir Ian that Muslims were in denial about extremists in their midst.
Muslims leaders at the Central London Mosque in Regents Park issued what was tantamount to a ‘fatwa’ which declared the suicide bombings and the bombers as un-Islamic. A statement from the mosque repudiated the bombers’ actions and discredited any claims that there is an Islamic basis for their crimes.
Meanwhile, Britain’s most senior Muslim leader and well-known scholar, Sheikh Dr. Sir Zaki Badawi, was refused entry to the United States without any explanation and despite having been granted a visa by the US Embassy in London. Sir Zaki was due to participate in an inter-faith conference at a top US university and was also due to meet members of the Congress and Senate. Sir Zaki, an Egyptian and prominent Azharite scholar, is the principal of the Muslim College in London, and was recently honored by Queen Elizabeth with an honorary knighthood.
Only a few days ago in the aftermath of the London bombings, Dr. Badawi together with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams; Cardinal Cormack Murphy-O’Conner, and the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, held a united inter-faith service to reject the acts of the terrorists and the ideology of terrorism and suicide bombing.
