FAISALABAD, July 20: Shahzad Tanveer, the alleged mastermind behind the London bomb blasts, was angry with the killings of the innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir. This was claimed by Tahir Pervaiz, an uncle of Shahzad, while talking to this correspondent at his house in Chak 477-GB in Samundri tehsil, about 45 kilometres from here.

He said Shahzad visited Pakistan in November last year and spent three to four weeks in his village.

He regularly offered his prayers and observed fasting every Friday and Sunday. A boy who used to spend most of his time within his house before going to the UK, seldom played cricket in his street with neighbours, his uncle recalled.

He further claimed that Sadique Khan, another alleged suicide bomber of London blasts, visited the village many times to see him. Sadique was residing in the house of his maternal uncle in Rawalpindi.

“Osama bin Laden was Shahzad’s ideal and he used to discuss about the man with his cousins and friends in the village,” Mr Pervaiz claimed.

Immediately after the London incident, he said, Shahzad’s parents called him (Tahir) and told him that their son was missing. “We were under a shock and puzzled to see Shahzad’s photo as one of the suicide bombers in London.

“We cannot believe it all. Shahzad can’t act like this,” they said, but expressed apprehensions that some terrorist group might have involved him in the nefarious designs after his brainwashing.

Answering a question, Mr Pervaiz denied reports that Shahzad had been to any seminary in Pakistan or in any other country. He did his intermediate from an institution in London and he had nothing to do with any madressah.

Shahzad, he said, had visited Pakistan twice just to see his relatives and spend some time with them.

Inquiries revealed that Tanveer Ahmad, the father of Shahzad, resided in the area around the Mangla Dam and he was issued a visa of the UK by the then government from the account of Mangla Dam victims. He started residing in England while his family migrated to Chak No 77-GB where a piece of land was also offered to them by the government.

Shahzad Tanveer’s two sisters — Tabassum and Talaat — and a brother, Rizwan Tanveer, are running a fast food outlet in London.

Shahzad’s ghaibana funeral prayer was offered in the mosque of Chak 477-GB last Friday, which was attended by over 2,000 villagers.