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Widow of London bomber feels ashamed

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 26, 8:00 PM ET

LONDON - The widow of the leader of the 2005 London subway bombings said she was ashamed of her husband, and could understand if some people never forgave him.

Hasina Patel, the wife of Mohammed Sidique Khan, told Sky News television in an interview released Friday that she still did not know why her husband blew himself up aboard a London subway train, killing six people and himself.

"How you can be so calculated and cold and not have any emotions, how can people do that?" Patel said. "If somebody did that to me or my daughter, I would never forgive them."

Patel said Khan never dropped any hint about his deadly mission. She said he was a devout Muslim, but never gave any indication of radical leanings or criticized Britain.

"I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams, never," she said. "I didn't have an inkling towards his views even going in that direction. He kept it very well hidden."

Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain blew themselves up aboard three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005, killing 52 commuters in the deadliest attack on London since War II.

Patel was arrested in May by police investigating the attacks. She was later released without charge.

She spoke to Sky News wearing a full veil over her face, to protect her identity.

"I'm still trying to get my head round everything that happened," she said.

"I am still really confused to be honest. It is like two different people, I can't link the two things together at all."

Patel said that in July 2005 she was pregnant with the couple's second child; she was told she had miscarried on the day of the attacks.

She said that, as a young man, Khan seemed sensible and polite, and that the two had married out of love, despite their different backgrounds. He had a Pakistani background, while hers was Indian.

Her husband had grown more distant before the attacks, she said, and he spent more time away from the house.

"I thought maybe it is a phase, maybe he is depressed, he is always out with his friends but I couldn't put my finger on it, why he was always out and not spending a lot of time with me and my daughter," she said.

She said she still occasionally prayed for her husband.

"I pray for him because I feel there was a good person in there but feel he was probably misled and brainwashed by the wrong people," she said.

She said she avoided thinking about the attacks and focused on trying to properly raise her daughter.

"I don't want her to grow up with hatred," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_re_eu/britain_bombings_widow