It was three years to the day since the July 7 bombers brought carnage to the heart of London. In Britain yesterday, families of the victims wept for their loved ones.
In a village in Pakistan, a banquet was held to honour one of the young men who committed the murderous crimes.
Relatives of Shehzad Tanweer, who is buried there, staged the feast to 'celebrate his life' and 'remember him as a martyr' on the third anniversary of the terror attacks which killed 52 people and injured many more.
Yesterday the families of the victims reacted with outrage to the secret ceremony held at the village where 70 guests gathered to offer prayers and blessings for the suicide bomber whose grave is considered to be a 'shrine of a big saint'.
Bradford-born Tanweer, whose father emigrated from Pakistan and ran a chip shop in Leeds, detonated his bomb at Aldgate station on July 7, 2005, killing seven innocent people as well as himself.
Together with Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Hasib Hussain,18, and 19-year-old Jermaine Lindsay, the four bombers blew up three Underground trains and a bus.
As thousands mourned in Britain yesterday, in Pakistan there were prayers uttered for his soul and verses of the Koran were read out.
At the commemorative dinner held by Tanweer's uncle, 42-year-old property developer Tahir Pervez at his home in Samundari, guests were treated to two courses of sweet rice and salted rice with curry and beef prepared by a renowned local chef.
And to mark the occasion, rice was distributed among villagers. For the last two years, the family gathering has been held in secret at his grave, but this year police urged the family not to hold a memorial at the site.
His headstone - the largest in the cemetery of the village - bears the phrase 'La ilaha il Mohammed dur rasool Allah' which means 'There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger'......
Yesterday relatives of the victims condemned the celebration.
Pamela Bond, whose son Jamie Gordon, 30, died in the Tavistock Square blast, said: 'It's so bad I can't take it in. To celebrate a "martyr"? It's just too horrible. But we can't do anything about it.
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