After the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) successfully terminated the Pakistani British hostage-taker, Malik Faisal Akram who had taken hostages in a synagogue in Dallas Texas, reports have now emerged that he was on the radar of Britain’s secret service, according to UK media reports on Tuesday (January 18).
Texas synagogue hostage-taker Malik Faisal Akram had a long criminal record and was a regular visitor to Pakistan. But he was a member of Tablighi Jamaat, whose global spiritual center is in New Delhi and which Saudi Arabia, in a recent ban order, called a "gateway to terrorism."
— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) January 19, 2022
Malik Faisal Akram had taken Jews who were praying in a synagogue as his hostages and had demanded the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Afia Siddiqui dubbed “Lady Al Qaeda” who is serving a life sentence in the US for her suspected of ties with Al Qaeda.
Now, news has emerged that Akram was on the radar of the MI5 intelligence service during the second half of 2020 and was assessed if he posed a security threat after suspicion around Islamist terrorism had reportedly been flagged.
According to ‘The Times’ newspaper, Akram was the subject of a “short lead investigation” for at least four weeks but the case was closed when security analysts assessed there was no indication that he presented a terrorist threat at that time.
However, Akram has been imprisoned four times, between 1996 and 2012, for a variety of offences, including violent disorder, harassment and theft and was banned from a British court for ranting about the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York in 2001.
The Exclusion Order at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court was made under Section 12 of the UK’s Contempt of Court Act over 20 years ago.
However, by the time he travelled to the US in late December 2021, Akram was not on the UK Home Office warnings index, which is the watchlist that allows police at airports to intercept would-be passengers of concern.
Akram, whose family is based in the UK, said he had mental health problems and had stayed at homeless shelters before carrying out the siege in order to force the US to release Aafia Siddiqui.
Since he was not screened by the British, his arrival in the US did not raise any red flags. However, US President Joe Biden declared the incident as a terror act, and at the same time, he said Akram purchased the handgun used in the siege “on the street” which is a quip on the prevailing gun laws in the US.
More information has now emerged on the activities of Akram’from Blackburn and it seems had has had a long quarrel with his family after he moved to a more conservative strand of Islam, reportedly a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, the India based Islamic organisation involved in evangelizing the Islamic faith.
Akram was estranged from his wife and had six children and tried to impose his strict Islamic religious values on others and distanced himself from his family and had taken to Wahhabism, which is one of the most puritanical strains of Islam.
As of now, two teenagers who are under arrest in south Manchester in connection with the Texas siege are being questioned by England’s North West Counter Terrorism Unit.
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