Brother pleaded with Texas attacker: 'Think about your kids man'

Malik Faisal Akram revealed he had planned terrorist act for two years

Malik Faisal Akram is seen in this handout photo taken at a faith based daytime outreach center in Dallas, Texas, prior to the incident. Courtesy of OurCalling, LLC. /Handout via REUTERS

Despite the heartfelt intervention of his brother, the British man who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue vowed to come home in “a body bag” in an audio recording of his final conversation which revealed he had been planning the attack for two years.

By his own account Malik Faisal Akram told another sibling, Gulzameer Akram, on his deathbed he would become a “martyr” just four months ago, setting in train the events that led to his death at the end of the siege near Dallas.

Akram's hostage plot was revealed in a final audio conversation released by The Jewish Chronicle, in which his brother Gulbar can be heard begging him to release his captives.

On Thursday, British police arrested two people from the northern cities of Manchester and Birmingham in connection with the hostage-taking.

British authorities have come under pressure over how gunman Akram was able to enter the US after it was revealed MI5 had investigated him and he had a string of criminal convictions dating back more than two decades.

Akram was shot dead after taking four people hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville in Dallas and demanding the release of a female Al Qaeda terrorist.

Newly released audio footage of hostage negotiations between Akram and Gulbar reveals him shouting that he had been waiting “two years for this” and intended to die. If the extremism dates back two years it would fall within the period that the UK security service MI5 was scrutinising Akram and before the decision was taken for no further action.

“I'm going to go toe-to-toe with [police] and they can shoot me dead … I’m coming home in a body bag.”

Gulbar was taken to a local police station in Blackburn in northern England on Saturday in a bid to convince his brother to release the hostages during the 10-hour standoff.

He can be heard pleading with him to calm down, to put down his weapon and let the hostages go.

“Think about your kids man, and these innocent people,” Gulbar begged.

But Akram refused to listen.

“I promised my brother on his deathbed that I'd go down a martyr,” Akram replied.

“Don't cry at my funeral. Because guess what, I've come to die G, OK?”

One of the suspect's younger brothers died four months ago from Covid-19 in Blackburn.

The rest of his comments referred to wanting to cause unrest in the US to set a “precedent".

The hostages were later released unharmed while US President Joe Biden branded the incident “an act of terror".

Akram spent the week leading up to the attack staying at a homeless shelter run by a Christian charity.

During the standoff he demanded the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui.

Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist, was sentenced by a New York court to 86 years in prison in 2010 for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan.