Brother urged synagogue hostage-taker to surrender in chilling last call

• Faisal and Gulbar spoke to each other minutes before Faisal was killed in a hail of bullets by US security officials.
• Gulbar made repeated efforts during the call, but Faisal replied that he wanted to go down as a “martyr".
• Faisal told his brother that he wishes that his “sister” Aafia be freed. 

BLACKBURN: UK national Malik Faisal Akram was urged by his brother Malik Gulbar Akram to surrender and let go of the four people taken hostage by the former in a Texas synagogue, but Faisal refused to listen and said he had come to the US to die as a martyr, according to an explosive audio released by the Jewish Chronicle detailing the last call between the two brothers.

Faisal and Gulbar spoke to each other minutes before Faisal was killed in a hail of bullets by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) specialist team.  

According to the Jewish Chronicle audio, which it claimed to have received from a US security source, this is the final call which Malik Faisal Akram made to his family in Blackburn as the siege was going on. Faisal tells Gulbar that he has "come to die" when asked by Gulbar to return home to his family and end the misery of everyone.

Gulbar makes repeated efforts to get his brother to surrender, telling him that the hostages are innocent people but Faisal talks about American wars in Afghanistan, killings in Muslim countries, Taliban and atrocities. Faisal replies that he wants to go down as a “martyr" and adds that Americans are not going to spare him after the synagogue hostage taking.

"I've only been here two weeks and I've got them all at gunpoint," he says, adding: "I'm coming back home in a body bag."

Faisal is heard speaking against Jews and US military actions, saying he was acting on behalf of the victims of US wars.

In the same audio, Faisal calls for Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, imprisoned in nearby Fort Worth, to be released. He says: "I've prayed to Allah for two years for this."

He then says that it doesn’t matter whether Aafia Siddiqui is released as he has made his point and highlighted her case.

Faisal said: "I promised my brother on his deathbed that I'd go down as a martyr.” 

Faisal’s younger brother, who was a body builder with no links to Faisal’s actions, died three months ago from COVID. 

When Gulbar asked Faisal to end the siege as the whole family in Blackburn was under intense media gaze, Faisal responded that he was pleased with the attention he had attracted to the cause of Muslims who were, in his view, oppressed by the US.

Faisal also told his brother that he wishes that his “sister” Aafia Siddiqui be freed. 

Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving a sentence in the US on terror charges, has distanced herself from the actions of Faisal, and underlined that he is not related to her in any way. 

“She's in [prison] for 84 years, they f***ing framed her,” he said.

At one point, Faisal’s brother is heard sobbing, frustrated that his brother had made up his mind to not live anymore.

His final words were: “I’m going.”