UK charity funds may have been used to fund 7/7 propaganda

London, Aug.20 : Funds collected by the BBC's Children in Need charity could have been used to recruit and train homegrown terrorists involved in the 7/7 terror attacks on London.

Children in Need's chief Executive David Ramsden was quoted as telling Newsnight: I'm incredibly concerned that we did make an award to Leeds Community School over nine years ago."

"Any allegation that any funding we've given to any project has been misused and not used to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people makes me concerned and very sad.

"We take the trust that the public puts in BBC Children In Need and the fact that they provide us with their finding extremely seriously and I'm incredibly concerned.

The program reported that 20,000 pounds was handed over to the Leeds Community School in Beeston, Yorkshire between 1999 and 2002. The school was run from premises behind the Iqra Islamic bookshop, which the gang used as a meeting place and an opportunity to radicalise others.

Some of the cash could also have been used to fund the propaganda activities of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in July 2005, according to an investigation by BBC 2's Newsnight.

Both Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, were trustees of the bookshop and Sidique Khan also worked for a Saturday club at the associated Leeds Community School.

Both the bookshop and the school were registered charities - the bookshop claimed, on Charity Commission submissions, that its aim was "the advancement of the Islamic faith", while the school's aim was said to be to "advance the education...of Pakistani and Bangladeshi" pupils.

The Conservatives said that charities and other public bodies had to be careful that potential terrorists trying to raise money did not exploit them.

ANI