BRITISH police on arrested two men today over their alleged role in a hostage taking by a British man at a synagogue in Texas last weekend.

The men were arrested in Birmingham and Manchester this morning by counter terrorism officers, Greater Manchester Police said in a tweet. 

The men are being questioned in custody by counter terrorism police.

A man from Blackburn, northwest England, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was shot dead during a 10-hour siege on Saturday. The four hostages including a rabbi were all freed unharmed.

Media reports said Akram was investigated in 2020 by the UK’s domestic security agency MI5, which shut down the probe after a little more than a month due to a lack of evidence that he was a threat.  

Reports say the hostage-taker was seeking the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist known as Lady Al-Qaeda, whose detention has been a cause celebre for jihadists.

On Sunday, UK police arrested two teenagers and searched a property in Manchester in connection with the siege but released them without charge. – AFP, January 20, 2022.