Suicide bomber may have been 'brainwashed', says family

The family of one of the London suicide bombers today said he may have been “brainwashed” into carrying out such an evil act.

Seven people, including the bomber, died in the Edgware Road blast on July 7, which was one of four devastating explosions across the capital.

The number of people killed in the atrocity rose to 55 today after a man died overnight at the Royal London Hospital, in the East End.

Of the dead, 41 have been positively identified by police and 31 named publicly.

Today the family of Mohammad Sidique Khan expressed their sympathy to the victims, their friends and family.

In a statement through West Yorkshire Police, they urged anyone with any information to contact detectives in order to “expose these terror networks who target and groom our sons to carry out such evils”.

The statement went on: “The Khan family would like to sincerely express their deepest and heartfelt sympathies to all the innocent victims and their families and friends affected by this horrific and evil act.

“We are devastated that our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out such an atrocity, since we know him as a kind and caring member of our family.”

Khan lived in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire with his wife and their young daughter.

The message from his family came after it emerged that he had attended Parliament last year as the guest of a Labour MP.

The 30-year-old learning mentor worked at Hillside Primary School in Leeds and met Labour MP Jon Trickett in July 2004, whose wife Sarah is headteacher at the school.

Khan met Cabinet minister Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, and rubbed shoulders with unsuspecting politicians on a tour of the Palace of Westminster with Mr Trickett.

The disclosure prompted fears that the Houses of Parliament may have been considered as a target.

The Labour Party said that as soon as the MP realised Khan was one of the London suicide bombers, he informed the chief superintendent in charge of Commons security.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair admitted a man who had been on an intelligence service watch list had not been put under surveillance.

The man, who has not been named, arrived at the Suffolk port of Felixstowe and left from London’s Heathrow Airport under the eyes of Special Branch, which monitors all flights, hours before the suicide blasts, according to the Daily Mail.

He had apparently not been considered a high enough priority, and flew out just before the bombers struck.

“With this particular man there is nothing at the moment that links him directly,” the commissioner said.

But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said the reports threw up questions about police and intelligence services resourcing’ and said he would ask Home Secretary Charles Clarke about the issue on Monday.

In the wake of the admission the Immigration Service Union (ISU) also said information gathering at Britain’s ports of entry should be enhanced.

The ISU’s John Tincey argued that a system for checking the details of those leaving the country, abandoned on cost grounds during the 1990s, should be restored.

The Government has also announced that it plans to create a new criminal offence to help prosecute suspects before they commit atrocities.

It will cover the areas of providing or receiving training in the use of hazardous substances, “acts preparatory to terrorism” and inciting terrorism indirectly.

The offence of providing or receiving training would apply to those who had undergone such activities in the UK and abroad.

Indirect incitement of terrorism would include both public and private statements.

The commissioner said he believed detectives would establish a “clear link” between the London bombers and al-Qaida, and has given a new warning of the “very strong possibility” of further attacks.

Police investigations have taken officers to Cairo, where detectives are hoping to question an Egyptian biochemist arrested in connection with the July 7 attacks.

They hope to talk to Magdy el-Nashar, 33, about a flat in Leeds, and about suggestions he knew one of the bombers, Jamaican-born Islamic convert Lindsay Jamal.

El-Nashar is understood to have denied any connection to the attacks.

He arrived at Leeds University in October 2000 and completed a biochemistry PhD in May, sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo.

Police are also probing links between the bombers and Pakistan-based al-Qaida cells.

Intelligence officials in Pakistan believe that within the last year one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, visited a radical religious school there run by a banned Sunni Muslim militant group.

Officials said he may also be connected to a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the US Embassy.

Meanwhile, detectives in Leeds are trying to establish whether a substance found in a raid, reportedly in a bath, is acetone peroxide – also known as “Mother of Satan” and TATP.

TATP has been chosen for other al Qaida operations in the past and is an explosive of choice among Middle East extremist groups. It was also used by British-born attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid.