Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 6, 2022

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Police in Britain have arrested two teenagers in connection with events at a synagogue in Texas on Saturday, in which a gunman took four people hostage before he was killed.

Saturday morning during religious services, Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, took four people hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. After a nearly eleven-hour standoff, one hostage was released unharmed on Saturday afternoon and the remaining three escaped when the hostage rescue team killed Akram.

Before he died, Akram repeatedlydemanded the release of convicted terrorist and attempted murderer Aafia Siddiqui,who is currently serving a 86-year sentence at a federal prison in Texas.

According to a report by CNN, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said that Akram arrived in the U.S. about five weeks ago, via a flight that landed at JFK Airport in New York City. The exact path he traveled was not yet known.

The source also said that Akram was not on any U.S. government watchlists and traveled legally. Both American and British intelligence services were searching their databases and so far had found no prior derogatory information on Akram, and were continuing to scrub their systems.

On Sunday, the Greater Manchester Police issued a statement about the events in Texas from Assistant Chief Constable Dominic Scally on their official Twitter account. The statement confirmed that Akram was originally from the Blackburn area of Lancashire and that their Counter Terror Policing North West unit was assisting American authorities. The statement urged the public to call them to report anything that might be linked to terrorism.

Several hours later, the GMP tweeted an update on the matter. As part of the ongoing investigation into the attack that took place at a Synagogue in Texas on 15 January 2022, Officers from Counter Terror Policing North West have made two arrests in relation to the incident, the statement said.

Two teenagers were detained in South Manchester this evening, the GMP continued. They remain in custody for questioning.

The GMP was continuing to work with American and international authorities on the investigation, the statement concluded, and local police were liasing with local communities to put in place any measures to provide further reassurance.

The Independent also reported on the teenagers arrests, noting that authorities had not yet released any identifying information about the teenagers, such as their names, ages, or genders.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated.

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Two UK Teenagers Arrested re Texas Synagogue Hostage Crisis

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