7/7 bomb-maker once dreamt of playing cricket for England

Fertilizer bomb leader Omar Khyam, the Pakistan-born British national who was arrested in relation to the 7/7 bombings which killed 52 persons in London, once dreamt of playing cricket and open for England and Sussex. But, as he grew into his teens, he was brainwashed by radical Muslims into terrorism.

London, May 1 : Fertilizer bomb leader Omar Khyam, the Pakistan-born British national who was arrested in relation to the 7/7 bombings which killed 52 persons in London, once dreamt of playing cricket and open for England and Sussex. But, as he grew into his teens, he was brainwashed by radical Muslims into terrorism.

Belonging to a middle class family, who loved the football club Manchester United and fish and chips, was the grandson of a British Army colonel. He appeared to have the world at his feet until fell prey to Islamic fanaticism.

He secretly started attending radical meetings and ran away to join a terrorist training camp in Pakistan when he was just 17. Gradually, he was instructed in handling guns, including assault and sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and guerilla techniques. He returned to Britain ready to launch a bloody campaign of his own, The Sun quoted him as saying.

His uncle Sajjah Ahmad said that his family had absolutely no idea as to what he was up to. "Omar was a normal kid until radicals started preaching their hatred round here. They preyed on boys at the mosque and even in the shopping centres, getting them when they were young and impressionable.

They showed them videos of injustices Muslims were suffering and channelled their anger into hatred.

Then suddenly Omar disappeared. We didn't know where he had gone until he rang from Pakistan. We used our contacts in the Pakistan army to find where he was and we went out to bring him back.

His ambition had been to open the batting for England and Sussex. But he lost interest when he got involved with these extremists," he said.

Khyam (25) grew up in a non-Muslim household after his family left Pakistan for Crawley, West Sussex, in the 1970s. The oldest of three boys, he first became interested in fundamentalist Islam at 15, after his parents divorced. He began A-levels but gradually his religious obsessions grew.

In 1998 he took classes run by an Islamic society. On a visit to Pakistan in 1999 he spoke to Kashmiri separatists.

There he became a regular mosque visitor, without his family and friends knowing attended meetings of the now-banned radical group al-Muhajiroun, led by the extremist Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Subsequently, he joined the training camp in the hills of Pakistan after telling his family he was going to France on a college trip. He was brought home but went back for a wedding - then crossed into Afghanistan to meet Taliban leaders.

On his return he began swindling UK building firms to fund Afghan fighters and came to the attention of MI5.

ANI