British police arrest two teens in connection with Dallas synagogue standoff

Police in the United Kingdom have arrested two teenagers allegedly connected to the hostage-taking at a Dallas area Synagogue over the weekend.

“As part of the ongoing investigation into the attack that took place at a Synagogue in Texas on 15 January 2022, Officers from the Counter Terror Policing North West have made two arrests in relation to the incident,” the Greater Manchester Police said in a statement on Twitter Sunday.

“Two teenagers were detained in South Manchester this evening,” the statement continued. “They remain in custody for questioning.”

The suspect in the hostage-taking incident was a British citizen who said he was demanding the release of a Pakistani woman in federal prison in Fort Worth. That prisoner, Aafia Siddiqui, is serving an 86-year sentence for trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Sunday, Siddiqui’s lawyer, Marwa Elbially, said Siddiqui would want no violence committed in her name. “We are all thankful the hostages were safely released and no one was harmed,” Elbially said. “The hostage-taker’s actions are heinous and wrong, and we condemn them.”

“Malik Faisal Akram had been suffering from serious mental health issues for many years,” says Faizan Syed, executive director of CAIR DFW.

Sunday, police in Manchester said two teenagers had been arrested in the city in connection with the investigation in Colleyville. They have not confirmed how the two might be related to Akram.

“The sad reality is this event was undertaken by a single, delusional individual,” says Newton, the mayor of Colleyville. “I’m concerned his actions were driven by hate for the religious beliefs of others that differed from his own.”