UK Police Arrest Two Men Over Texas Hostage Siege
By AFP
British police on Thursday arrested two men over their alleged role in a hostage-taking by a British man at a synagogue in Texas last weekend.
The men were arrested in Birmingham in central England and in Manchester in northwestern England on Thursday morning by counter-terrorism officers, Greater Manchester Police said in a tweet.
The men are being questioned in custody by Counter Terrorism Policing North West.
A man from Blackburn in northwestern England, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was shot dead during a 10-hour siege on Saturday. The four hostages including a rabbi were all freed unharmed.
Media reports said Akram was investigated in 2020 by Britain’s domestic security agency MI5, which shut down the probe after a little over a month due to a lack of evidence that he was a threat.
Reports say the hostage-taker was seeking the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist known as “Lady Al-Qaeda,” whose detention has been a cause celebre for jihadists.
UK police on Sunday arrested two teenagers and searched a property in Manchester some 21 miles (34 kilometres) from Blackburn in connection with the siege but released them without charge.
