A nation unites in grief
Thousands pause to remember the 22 victims of suicide bomber’s hate
THEY PAUSED in the beautiful sunshine of a British spring day to remember lives senselessly ended by the blind hate of terrorism.
Thousands of people took part yesterday in a nationwide minute’s silence for the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.
Many made their way to landmark sites such as Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square in London or Victoria Gardens in the centre of Leeds for the 11am tribute. But the focal point of the country’s mourning was Manchester, the city where suicide attacker Salman Abedi brought death and destruction to a pop concert on Monday evening.
Crowds gathered in the city’s Albert Square, which has seen stunned residents coming together to lay flowers and attend vigils in the days since the blast.
Others headed for nearby St Ann’s Square, where an impromptu mass rendition of Don’t
Look Back In Anger, a rock anthem by Mancunian band Oasis, was sung following the silence.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins asked people at the force’s headquarters to spend some time “reflecting” on the events of Monday.
“Particularly remembering the families of those 22 victims who perished in that terrorist atrocity that we saw here in our great city.
“I’d like you to also think about those that still lie in our hospitals, some very critically injured. Think of them and their families,” he said.
Yesterday’s moving scenes came as it emerged that 22-yearold Abedi was known to security services before he carried out his attack. The British-born son of Libyan parents, he had been banned from a mosque in Manchester after criticising an imam during a sermon critical of the Islamic State terror group.
A number of people who knew him, including family members, reportedly warned authorities he was developing radical views.
A Whitehall source has confirmed that Abedi was a “former
subject of interest” to the security services and his risk “remained subject to review”. The 22-yearold’s father Ramadan and brother Hashim have been detained in Libya while another brother, Ismail, was arrested in Manchester on Tuesday. His sister, Jomana Abedi, told The Wall Street
Journal her brother may have been reacting to US-led strikes in the Middle East. “I think he saw children – Muslim children – dying everywhere, and wanted revenge,” she said. “He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge. Whether he got that is between him and God.”
A total of eight people were in UK custody yesterday, with one man being arrested following a search of an address in the Withington area of Manchester.
Police have said that the searches being conducted in connection with the inquiry could take “several days to complete”.
It has also emerged that counter-terrorism agencies estimate there are as many as 3,000 potentially violent Islamist extremists in the UK, most of them thought to be British. A senior Whitehall source revealed that 18 terror plots had been foiled in Britain since 2013, including five since the deadly Westminster attack in March this year.