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Terror plot suspect was a carefree teenager

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Abdul Muneem Patel, the teenaged son of British-Indian immigrants arrested in connection with the alleged terror plot to blow up American planes, is a school drop-out who turned intensely religious about three years ago after his father's visit to Iraq, his friends said on Monday. They said Patel, who was arrested from Hackney, east London where he grew up, had no known means of income and some were surprised that his name figured in the list of 19 alleged suspects whose assets have been frozen by British Government under anti-terror laws.

"I don't know what assets this 17-year-old boy with no visible means would have,'' said one local resident who knows the family but wanted to remain anonymous.

Patel was described as a "care-free'' teenager who liked to play football before he changed into a "serious'' and "temperamental'' person.

Neighbours and family friends were reluctant to talk on record. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one said Patel dropped out of school after he was expelled for skipping classes. For a while, he reportedly helped neighbours with odd jobs but did not seem to have a regular job.

One former friend was reported in The Sunday Times as saying that Patel's "character changed'' after his father, a mechanic called Mohammed, travelled to Iraq on a Muslim aid mission and "apparently never returned''.

Patel and the son-in-law of a former imam of Indian origin are among the 24 persons arrested last week for their alleged role in the abortive terror plot. One has already been released without charge, and the hearing in the case of another person is due.

Most of the alleged suspects are British nationals of Pakistani origin. Officially, only names of 19 persons who have had their assets frozen have been released.

Meanwhile, the Government reduced the terror threat level from "critical'' to "severe'' but Home Secretary John Reid warned that this did not mean that the "threat has gone away''.

Restrictions on carrying hand baggage, imposed last week, were likely to ease but flight delays continued because of new and more elaborate security measures.

Munaf Zeena, chairman of the Council of Indian Muslims (U.K.), urged the Muslim community to fight extremism and said there could be no justification for terrorism. He criticised attempts to rationalise extremist activity by linking it to British foreign policy.

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