7/7 bomber’s family hold party as city mourns

    A party is being held at the grave of a 7/7 bomber in what is being described as an insult to the 52 London commuters murdered three years ago today. The family of Shehzad Tanweer and 400 guests will “celebrate his life” and “remember him as a martyr” at a village in Pakistan today. Tanweer, 22, Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Hasib Hussain, 18, and 19-year-old Jermaine Lindsay also died when they detonated rucksack bombs on three crowded Tube trains and a No30 bus. Tanweer’s uncle, 42-year-old property developer Tahir Pervez, is organising the celebration in which verses of the Koran will be read out then curry and rice distributed at his home in Samundari. He said today that he has “fond feelings” for his nephew and planned to visit Tanweer’s mother in Leeds later this month, adding that she was “still devastated” at the loss of her son. Seven people were killed and 171 injured when Tanweer detonated his bomb on a westbound Circle line train near Aldgate station. One villager in Pakistan who asked not be named, said: “The party is kept very secret from people outside the village but everyone knows it happens every year. People are invited to join in blessing Shehzad Tanweer’s soul by reading verses from the Koran and they call on us to remember Shehzad as a shahid (martyr).” The gathering has twice been held in secret – yards from Tanweer’s grave which is fiercely protected from outsiders. It is the largest in the cemetery of the village called Chak 477 and is opposite the mosque. On the grave, his epitaph bears the phrase “La ilaha il Mohammed dur rasool Allah” which means “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger”. Amar Singh reports

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