London 7/7 bomber’s secret girlfriend was ‘clueless’ of his ‘radicalization’

LONDON - A secret girlfriend of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the July 7, 2005, London suicide bombers, has told the inquest into the attack that she had no idea about his radicalization.

According to the Daily Mail, the woman, identified as witness A, described how she believed Tanweer had been in love with her.

Tanweer was one of the four suicide bombers responsible for the terrorist attack, in which bombs were detonated on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London, killing 52 people and injuring over 700.

The 22-year-old had detonated a bomb while travelling on the Circle Line train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, killing both himself and seven others.

The court heard that the woman and Tanweer had started secretly seeing each other shortly before 2002, but kept their relationship hidden from friends and family.ugo Keith, counsel to the hearing, asked her: “Did he give you any indication of his feelings for you?”

She replied: “Yes, I got good vibes from him that he loved me.”

When asked if they spent the night together on July 1, 2005, because she went to a hotel, she said: “Yes”.

The couple were “close, but not intimate” during their time in the hotel, she added.

The woman, however, told the hearing that she had no idea that Tanweer had become radicalized, or was planning to carry out the attacks in the coming days.

Instead he told her that he was going to spend the following week on holiday in Scotland, and had plans to see her on his return.

She described Tanweer as a sports fan, who was not particularly religious, but did observe Ramadan.

Tanweer’s relatives in Pakistan had earlier said that the 22-year-old had boasted of wanting to die as a “holy warrior”, and that he was enamoured with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

They noted that incidents such as the Kuran desecration controversy of 2005 had “always been in his mind”. (ANI)