Thursday, July 21 2005 17:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London/Islamabad: Shahzad Tanveer, one of the London bombers, idolised Osama bin Laden and sympathised with militants in Kashmir, media reports said today (July 21, 2005).

"Osama bin Laden was Shahzad's idol and he used to discuss about the man with his cousins and friends in the village," Tanveer's uncle Tahir Pervaiz, who lives in Chak near Fasalabad was quoted by Pakistani daily 'Dawn' as saying.

A London daily 'Daily Telegraph' quoted his cousin Asfaq Ahmed as saying that Tanveer had said, "Bin Laden was his hero and everything he did was right. He believed that America had made Muslims suffer all over the world. He used to say about Kashmir that India was committing great atrocities against the Muslims."

"When his father in England gave him money to buy clothes he would not spend it on himself, but for buying coats for those waging the jihad in Kashmir."

Ahmed said Tanveer could never have knowingly become a suicide bomber. "He was either tricked or brainwashed."

Tanveer, 22 and a British citizen of Pakistani origin, regularly offered prayers and observed fasts every Friday and Sunday, Pervaiz said and denied reports that his nephew visited madrassas in the Punjab province, his uncle said.

Tanveer visited Pakistan in November last year and spent three to four weeks in his village.

Sadique Khan, another alleged suicide bomber, visited the village many times to see him. Khan lived in the house of his maternal uncle in Rawalpindi, he said.

Pakistan officials have confirmed that Tanveer and Khan arrived together on November 19, 2004 in Karachi and left for London on February 8, this year.