Friday, July 15 2005 09:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed concern yesterday (July 14, 2005) over what goes on in some madrassas, or Islamic schools, in Pakistan, after it emerged that one of the London bombers had attended one.

Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who carried out the bombing of an Underground subway train at Aldgate, east London, was said by his uncle to have gone to a madrassa in December last year, wanting to learn to recite the Koran by heart.

"We are concerned about what goes on in some, though not all, of the madrassas in Pakistan," Straw told reporters in London, adding that the concern was shared by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Straw said there were a major reform programme underway in Pakistan to provide secular education alongside the religious schools, as well as 'intensive and increasingly substantial co-operation' between the UK and Pakistan on counter-terrorism.

He refused to reveal details of any contacts with Pakistan officials over the London bombings investigation.

Fifty-three people have been confirmed dead, and some 700 injured, after last Thursday's (July 7, 2005) suicide bombings that targeted three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus in the British capital.

Straw was the first to claim that the bombings the deadliest on British soil since World War II bore the 'hallmarks' of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.