LONDON -- Makram Ali moved to the United Kingdom from Bangladesh when he was 10. He and his wife raised four daughters and two sons. He loved strolling in parks with his two grandchildren. His family was about to take a vacation in Canada.
Ali, 51, was returning from Ramadan prayers Monday morning when he collapsed on a street in North London; he was known to have a weak leg.
First aid arrived, and Ali received medical assistance. He appeared to feel better and said he wanted to go home. Then, a van suddenly crashed into a crowd of Muslims, including Ali, outside the Finsbury Park Mosque and the Muslim Welfare House, a community center.
Ali, who lived nearby in the borough of Haringey, died from multiple injuries, the Metropolitan Police said Thursday, citing a postmortem examination.
He was the only person to have died in an attack that is being treated as a terrorist act targeting Muslims. Nine people were taken to hospitals; four remained in care Thursday, two of them in critical condition.
"Our father was a quiet, gentle man," his daughter Ruzina Akhtar said in a statement on behalf of the family Thursday, after meeting with the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Cressida Dick. "He didn't get involved in political or social discussion; he instead took comfort and enjoyment spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, and he was always ready to make a funny joke when you least expected."
Muslim communities in the U.K. have reported an increase in prejudice and anger directed at them in the wake of three terrorist attacks since March -- two in London, and one in Manchester, England -- for which the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.
The Finsbury Park attack raised the possibility that others might seek vengeance, but Akhtar said, "I have no doubt that our father would not wish for there to be any retaliation or recriminations, and would urge people to remain calm and to pray for peace in these difficult times."
Darren Osborne, 47, who lives in Cardiff, Wales, has been arrested on suspicion of committing, preparing or instigating terrorism including murder and attempted murder.
Neighbors have described Osborne as belligerent and aggressive, but have said that he did not express anti-Muslim sentiments -- until last weekend, when he was kicked out of a local pub after a drunken tirade.
Police say he rented a van near his home at 8:20 a.m. Sunday, drove 150 miles to London and then plowed the vehicle into the crowd outside the mosque around 12:20 a.m. Monday. Ali was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:04 a.m.
Police have reviewed 80 hours of closed-circuit television footage, visited 140 locations and recovered 33 digital devices from several places in Wales as investigators try to piece together what motivated the attack.
"Following the attack, specialist counterterrorism officers have spoken to 28 witnesses who were at the scene," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for counterterrorism, said Thursday. "We are very grateful to everyone who has provided information so far -- their accounts are assisting the investigation hugely -- but we need more people to come forward and tell us what they saw and what they know about the driver of this van."
A Section on 06/23/2017