A Search for Roots Goes Bad

ROSS PARRY

INNOCENT YOUTH: Tanweer

Tahir Pervaiz remembers his nephew as a nice young man who shared two of the prevailing passions of his peers: cricket and Osama bin Laden. This past winter, British-born Shahzad Tanweer spent several weeks out of a three-month trip in Pakistan with maternal uncle Pervaiz and his family. Every evening he liked to play cricket with their neighbors in the quiet village of Kottan, a 55-minute drive from Faisalabad, in central Pakistan. Tanweer also admired bin Laden, a common sentiment in a country where the al-Qaeda leader's image is as popular an emblem of youthful rebellion as Che Guevara once was...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!