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| Britain |
| Mystery over London bomber's assets |
| 2006-01-07 |
| Claims that one of the July 7 suicide bombers left a six-figure fortune mystified investigators last night. A report in The Sun said that Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who detonated a bomb on the Underground at Aldgate station, killing eight people, had an estate valued at £121,000 net of taxes and debts. Yet Tanweer, a British national of Pakistani descent, was a student until 2004 and worked for a few hours a week as an assistant in the fish and chip shop run by his father in Beeston, Leeds. Questions were being asked how he could possess assets of such value. The report came as a complete surprise to security officials who have spent the past six months investigating every aspect of Tanweer's life in an effort to discover why he took part in the atrocity and whether the terrorist cell was being run from overseas. In the two years before the attack, Tanweer is known to have visited Pakistan at least twice with his fellow conspirator, Mohammed Siddique Khan. There is no clear picture about what he did there and who he contacted, though it is believed he spent time at a terrorist training camp run by the Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen group in Mansehra, near the Kashmir border, where he was trained in handling arms and explosives. Security sources now believe that Tanweer was a more "serious player" than had first been appreciated. But there is no evidence of any direct involvement of al-Qa'eda in the atrocity, though it bore all the marks of one of its operations. If Tanweer possessed a six-figure sum, it could provide a financial trail leading back to a mastermind of the operation. Investigators were planning further inquiries into his financial background. At the family home in Leeds, his mother, Parveen Akhtar Tanweer, was unwilling to answer questions about the reports, which quoted a spokesman for the probate office in London as saying: "We have no information as to what the estate was worth before [deductions were] made. The only people who will know are the family and the solicitors." Neighbours said the family had kept to themselves since Tanweer was named as one of the four bombers who murdered 52 people and injured more than 700. A man who did not want to be named said: "I don't know if they have got all this money or not but, if they have, they certainly haven't been broadcasting it around the neighbourhood. They are a very private family and want to be left alone to get on with their lives the best they can." Tanweer was buried in the family's home village of Samoondran in the Punjab region of Pakistan in October. It is thought that more than 300 people attended the funeral. At the time his father, Mohammed Mumtaz Tanweer, 56, said: "As far as I can understand, my son was more British in his orientation than anything else. "He had planned his career in sport. Even on the night before he died, he was playing cricket." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 You could be right, GF 4549. But that would presume he wasn't aware enough to notice that shiny new bomb vest he'd been given by his dear, dear friends from the mosque... Of course, it doesn't take the same mental acuity to become a cricketeer as to become a rocket scientist (or even to go for that degree in Theatre). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-07 20:00 |
| #7 Perhaps it was a spontaneous thing T. Wife. Maybe he wasn't planing to explode for 10 or 12 years, but got an opportunity to good to pass by. |
| Posted by: Glemp Flineper4549 2006-01-07 19:38 |
| #6 "He had planned his career in sport. Even on the night before he died, he was playing cricket." Is his father really so stupid as to believe that this particular son had plans for a future career the night before he blew uphimself and a number of the local citizenry? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-07 19:27 |
| #5 Might want to follow the money, guys. And the family might want to watch their behinds. The terrorists are going to want this amount back. 1/4 million bucks buys a lot of bomb belts. Begs the questions though - obviously the proceeds of terrorist funds. Why does the family keep money accrued through crime? Shouldn't his estate be frozen, pending investigation - and criminal funds directed to victims? |
| Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-01-07 11:16 |
| #4 Tanweer was buried in the family's home village of Samoondran in the Punjab region of Pakistan in October. It is thought that more than 300 people attended the funeral. Local boy makes good. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-01-07 10:07 |
| #3 There, that's more accurate. Fake, but more accurate. Do you have a background in journalism, Barbara? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-01-07 09:13 |
#2 Questions were being asked how he could possess assets of such value.By whom? Anyone with even half a brain knows where it came from. TheThere, that's more accurate. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-01-07 01:40 |
| #1 The report came as a complete surprise to security officials who have spent the past six months investigating every aspect of Tanweer's life in an effort to discover why he took part in the atrocity. DOH! |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-01-07 01:37 |