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Wife of July 7 bombings mastermind arrested

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Hasina Patel, widow of Siddique Khan who allegedly masterminded the London bombings of July 7, 2005, was on Wednesday arrested with three others on suspicion of commissioning, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism.

Hasina Patel, who is of Indian origin, reportedly lived separately from her husband at the time of the attacks.

Thursday's arrests followed a series of early morning police raids in the predominantly Asian areas of West Yorkshire and Birmingham.

Low-key

The whole operation was kept in low-key following protests from the Muslim community that police tended to hype anti-terror raids and fuel Islamophobia.

In a significant change of tactics, prompted by the shooting of an innocent and unarmed man during a previous raid, armed officers were not used in Thursday's operation. Police assured the local Muslim community that they were not being unfairly targeted.

"I had a meeting this morning with community leaders who are quite satisfied with the way this operation was carried out... It is a high profile investigation but a low key response in terms of how we are policing this operation," said Barry South chief of West Yorkshire police.

Among those arrested was Khalid Khaliq (34), who lived on the same street as Shehzad Tanweer, another of the July 7 bombers.

Links

Police said the arrests were part of continuing investigations to establish the London bombers' links with others. "Although we are legally limited in how much we can say, we will share as much information as we can with those living in the vicinity and with the wider community,'' police said.

Fifty-two persons were killed in the London bombings carried out by four suicide bombers who blew themselves up as part of a series of coordinated attacks on the London Underground.

Last month three men — Mohammed Shakil (30), Waheed Ali ( 23) and Sadeer Saleem (26) were charged in connection with the bombings.

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