LONDON — The father of the alleged Manchester Arena bomber has denied accusations that he was a member of a former Al Qaeda-backed group in Libya.

Ramadan Abedi, the father of alleged suicide bomber Salman Abedi who was believed to be behind the blast that killed 22 people and injured many others at a Arania Grande concert on Monday (May 22), also said his family "aren't the ones who blow up ourselves among innocents".

"I was really shocked when I saw the news, I still don't believe it," said Ramadan from the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

"My son was as religious as any child who opens his eyes in a religious family," added Ramadan, who arrived in the UK from his native Libya in the 1990s. "As we were discussing news of similar attacks earlier, he was always against those attacks, saying there's no religious justification for them. I don't understand how he'd have become involved in an attack that led to the killing of children.

"We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us."

A former Libyan security official Abdel-Basit Haroun had claimed on Wednesday (May 24) he personally knew Ramadan and that he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in the 1990s.

The group had links to Al Qaeda. Although the LIFG disbanded, Abdel-Basit said the father belongs to the Salafi Jihadi movement, the most extreme sect of Salafism and from which Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group hail.

Ramadan denied all the accusations.

He revealed that one of his other sons - he has four and two daughters, according to his official identification documents - had been arrested and is being questioned by police.

Salman made frequent trips to visit his family in Libya, his father said, and was in the country last week, where he had told his mother he intended to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Until now my son is a suspect, and the authorities haven't come up with a final conclusion," Ramadan said, insisting on his son's innocence. "Every father knows his son and his thoughts, my son does not have extremist thoughts." AGENCIES