Claim internet inspired Butt

LONDON: The family of London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt say he was inspired by extremist material posted on sites such as YouTube and this played a role in his radicalisation.

Profiles of the three perpetrators of last weekend’s London atrocities, in which eight people died, are still being put together as police arrests mount in raids across east London.

Relatives of 27yearold Butt say he watched extremist videos on YouTube and wanted to fight in Syria but could not go because his passport had been taken.

Fahad Khan, a cousin of Butt’s wife, Zahrah Rehman, claimed Butt watched hateful tirades of preachers online and supported Islamic State.

‘‘Khuram, I know he was inspired by one of the sheikhs who was giving lectures on YouTube, and he belonged to one specific sector of Islam which had very rigid and strict views,’’ Khan said.

‘‘Videos about fighting nonMuslims for no reasons, innocent nonMuslims.

‘‘He wanted to go to Syria, yes. I heard from [an] uncle that he wanted to go to Syria to fight, but because of the family pressure, or it might be the intervention by the authorities who seized his passport or whatever, he couldn’t go there.’’

The internet has also been described as the catalyst for radicalising Butt’s 21yearold coconspirator, Youssef Zaghba, whose mother said: ‘‘He had the internet and from there he got everything.’’

Police shot dead the two men along with 30yearold Rachid Redouane eight minutes after the trio went on a murderous spree through London Bridge and the nearby Borough Market.

Another suspect was arrrested yesterday in connection with the attack.

The 29yearold was held during a raid at a residential address in Newham, east London, Scotland Yard said. He was taken to a south London police station while officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command searched the property.

He is being held on suspicion of involvement in the preparation of terrorist acts.

The arrest brings to four the number of men being held in connection with last weekend’s attack, in which eight people died. — BPA