(Independent-UK)- Two men in modern Britain - one was planning a career in business, the other was dedicating himself to work within the small Pakistani community where he had spent all but two years of life. Then they disappeared. They resurfaced, in Tel Aviv, amid the smoking ruins of a packed bar, leaving three people dead and more than 60 wounded, in the first attack carried out in the name of the Palestinian cause by two people wholly foreign to it. On Tuesday, they coolly explained to the Israeli soldiers at the military checkpoint into Israel that they were tourists travelling with the Alternative Tourism Group, a company specializing in tours to "gain deeper insight into the difficulties facing grassroots peace initiatives in the Middle East." It was a perverse choice of lie. As his way into Mike's Place was blocked by a security guard, Asif Mohammed Hanif, 21, the "war tourist" from west London, detonated a suitcase bomb packed with nails.
2003-04-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive