LEEDS, England, July 14 -- They were three native sons, local boys who spent their entire lives in the Leeds area, each from respected families of Pakistani descent. One had prosperous parents; another was praised for his teaching ability. Last Thursday, they met at the train station shortly after dawn and bought one-way tickets to the British capital, toting rucksacks filled with explosives.
Along with a fourth conspirator from another city, the suspected bombers from Leeds killed at least 54 people in coordinated suicide attacks on London's public transport system. In the two days since investigators traced the trail back to this multiethnic, multiracial old mill town, a clearer portrait has started to emerge of the assailants, even as confusion deepened over their motives.
As parents dropped off their children at the Hillside Primary School in Leeds on Thursday, they had nothing but good things to say about a teaching assistant, Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the suspected bombers. They called the 30-year-old instructor kind, bright and popular, especially with the special-needs students he was trained to help.
"He was brilliant with the children. He went on trips with the kids, and my little girl went with him on a trip to London," Sharon Stevens, whose 11-year-old daughter attends the school, told reporters.
"I just can't believe that somebody like Mr. Khan could be involved in something like this," said another mother, shaking their head.
Shehzad Tanweer, 22, was about to earn a college degree and had received a red Mercedes from his father as a gift. Hasib Hussain, 18, told his parents he was going to London for the day to attend a religious conference. On Thursday, police publicly named the two for the first time as the bombers who joined Khan and a fourth, unidentified man as the culprits in the worst terrorist attack in British history.
Mohammed Iqbal, a Leeds city council member who represents Beeston and who knows Tanweer's family, said it was hard to reconcile how three local young men could have become religious radicals and planned such a violent assault in a city three hours away without anyone in the neighborhood noticing.
"There's parents who didn't know what their children were doing, that is for certain," he said. "Everybody is in a shocked state. They can't believe this has landed on our doorstep."
While the exact nature of the bombers' relationship remains unknown, as well as how they met and how long they knew one another, friends and acquaintances described Khan as someone whose personal magnetism made him a likely mentor to the two younger men.
He was erudite, having graduated from a local college with a degree in education. And his charm and education made him a welcome presence in the hardscrabble neighborhood of Beeston, a community of fading red-brick row houses and trash-strewn alleys, located about 200 miles north of London. In addition to teaching, Khan volunteered his time in the local cultural centers and sports leagues that catered to young people.
In a 2002 interview with the Times of London Educational Supplement, Khan said he enjoyed helping less-privileged children. "A lot of them have said this is the best school they've been to," he said proudly of the elementary school where he taught.
Investigators and residents said Khan spent time at a storefront mosque in Beeston with Tanweer and Hussain. Residents said Khan also volunteered at an Islamic bookstore where he reached out to teenage boys and young adults.
