Manchester council refuses to bury remains of suicide bomber

Manchester city council has refused to deal with the remains of a suicide bomber who killed 22 in an attack at the Manchester Arena last week.

A council spokesperson told Middle East Eye on Wednesday: "Under no circumstances would we allow the body of the perpetrator of the heinous attack on Manchester Arena to be buried or cremated in Manchester."

According to the Daily Mail, the bomber's remains had been kept in a morgue outside Manchester.

The city’s authorities are reportedly doing “everything in their power” to stop him being cremated, buried, or laid to rest in any way in the Greater Manchester area, reported the Manchester Evening News on Wednesday.

The public showed their support via Twitter for the council's decision.

Manchester central mosque, which provides Muslim funerals, refused to take the body, British media reported on Wednesday.

A spokesman from the mosque reportedly told the Evening Standard that its executive committee had met and agreed not to inter the remains of Abedi if his family made a request.

Middle East Eye contacted Manchester central mosque but it refused to comment on the reports. 

Abedi detonated his bomb just after the end of a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande in one of Europe's biggest indoor arenas in central Manchester. Many of the victims were either young concert-goers or parents waiting to take their children home.

A total of 116 people were injured in the attack, by Manchester-born Abedi, a university dropout of Libyan origin, 19 of whom remain in critical condition.

The Islamic State group has claimed the attack.

But British police investigating the attack said on Wednesday that Abedi probably acted alone buying most of the key bomb components himself and many of his actions were carried out alone, 

"Our inquiries show Abedi himself made most of the purchases of the core components," said Russ Jackson, the head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit. 

"What is becoming apparent is that many of his movements and actions have been carried out alone during the four days from him landing in the country and committing this awful attack."

Meanwhile, a brother of one of the bombing’s victims warned against using the tragedy to demonise immigrants.

Dan Hett and his brother Martyn Hett, who was killed in the bombing, have a Turkish mother.

“The idea that somebody would say, ‘Oh, this is an immigration problem’ frustrates me,” Hett told the Guardian. “How is this an immigration problem? A UK-born terrorist took out, among many other people, my UK-born Turkish brother … In an alternate timeline, the roles could have been reversed.”