London Bridge attack: Police 'raid restaurant owned by family of attacker Khuram Butt'

Khuram Butt was a former London Underground worker
Noble/Draper
Chris Baynes6 June 2017

Police have reportedly raided a restaurant owned by relatives of London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt.

Dozens of plain clothes officers searched an eatery in the Pakistani city of Jhelum as investigators probed the killer's family, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Butt, 27, is thought to have been born in the city 60 miles south-east of the capital Islamabad before his family emigrated to the UK in 1990.

Officers believed to be from Pakistan's powerful Inter Service Intelligence agency - the country's answer to MI5 - were seen by a Telegraph reporter outside a restaurant owned by a family member, who is a well-known businessman in the area.

Shocking footage: Khuram Butt appeared in Channel 4's The Jihadi Next Door
Channel 4

A Pakistani official told the newspaper British counter-terrorism authorities suspected Khuram Butt had been radicalised in the UK but were investigating his relatives as a precaution.

The source said: "Our British counterparts told us they don't think he was radicalised here, and we think it is probably more likely that he was trained in Syria.

"But we are searching the homes of any relatives connected to him and we are tracing all telephone calls made by family members."

Khuram Butt, of Barking, was known to British police and MI5 and was subject to an investigation in 2015.

He is alleged to have been an associate of the hate preacher Anjem Choudary and appeared in a 2016 Channel 4 documentary about British Islamic extremists, The Jihadis Next Door.

The former London Underground worker was once thrown out of a mosque for interrupting an imam's sermon and verbally attacked an anti-extremism campaigner.

Known locally as "Abz", he was a father to a toddler and baby and a keen gym-goer and weightlifter, neighbours said.

Transport for London confirmed he worked for London Underground as a trainee customer services assistant for six months before leaving in October 2016.

He was said to be the ringleader of the attack in which he and two other terrorists mowed down pedestrians in London Bridge on Saturday night before stabbing people to death in Borough market.

Twelve people were arrested in London on the day after the attack but all have since been released without charge.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in