GUJRAT: Pakistani authorities have searched the family home of one of the London Bridge attackers, Khurram Shehzad Butt, in Mujahidabad village as well as the restaurant of one of his maternal uncles in Jhelum but have made no arrest.

Butt, 27, belonged to a family that lived in the Mujahidabad area of Jhelum. His family, however, sold the house about nine years ago.

While police denied any knowledge of the search operation, an unnamed Pakistani official told The Telegraph that that they were carrying out searches of family houses in both Mujahidabad and Jhelum as a precaution.

British authorities believe Butt was not radicalised in Pakistan

“Our British counterparts told us they don’t think he [Butt] was radicalised here [in Pakistan], and we think it is probably more likely that he was trained in Syria. But we are searching the homes of any relatives connected to him and we are tracing all telephone calls made by family members,” the official said, according to the British newspaper.

On Saturday night, Butt and two other men rammed a rented van into a crowd on London Bridge and then stabbed people in the nearby Borough Market, killing seven people and injuring 48 others.

Residents of Mujahidabad said Butt was three years old when his family moved to Britain. His father, Saifullah Butt, who passed away a few years ago, used to run a furniture business in Jhelum before he sought asylum in Britain in 1992.

His maternal uncles are among the renowned business and political personalities of Jhelum. However, they have not been available for comments on the involvement of their nephew in the gruesome attack.

Shahid Rasool Dar, one of the maternal uncles of the suspect, has been an office-bearer of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Jhelum city chapter for a long time, besides being the president of the Markaz-i-Anjuman Tajaran, Jhelum. Nasir Dar, another maternal uncle, owns a restaurant along GT Road on the outskirts of Jhelum city.

Reporters have converged on their homes and offices looking for a comment from either of the two, but it appears that the residences are shut for the time being.

Besides searching the family house of Butt, intelligence sleuths also searched Nasir Dar’s restaurant on GT Road, but could not find anything suspicious.

One of Butt’s cousin, Bilal Dar, 18, told AP in Jhelum that the attack had shattered his family.

He said Butt lived in the city until he was about seven years old. “Our family is hurt by what he did,” he said. “This has destroyed our family’s pride.”

He confirmed that intelligence agents were interviewing relatives.

Zahid Nawaz, a neighbour, told The Telegraph: “The police asked questions about where Saif and Khurrum Butt’s house was. That was the first we came to know that the suspect in the terror attack in Britain belonged in this area. This is a shame for us — we don’t want this area to become identified with him and his name.”

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2017