IT was the slaughter of the innocents.

Eight people killed in an horrific firebomb attack on a house in Huddersfield.

And the reason?

A gang of thugs angry that a teenager had "bad mouthed" them.

He had talked to friends about a young couple, very much in love.

But some of the gang had already kidnapped and tortured the young couple who had breached traditional Muslim values by falling in love and running away together.

Student Ateeq-ur-Rehman was a close friend of the young couple, Saud Pervez Sheraz, 20, and Shahida Younis.

Eighteen-year-old Ateeq, a student at Huddersfield New College, knew of their love affair and was happy that they were happy.

But the romance horrified Shahida's devout Muslim father and brothers, in particular Shahid Mohammed.

He and others found out that the young lovers were living in Newcastle and travelled to the north east to attack them and drag them home.

Police called in to investigate quickly established the links between the kidnap and the families back in Huddersfield and launched an inquiry.

Detectives called on many people to piece together what happened and were able to bring the gang to trial in Newcastle, convicting all of a string of serious offences.

But Shahid Mohammed and one of his accompices, Shaied Iqbal, became convinced that Ateeq was the key to their capture.

They were furious that he had apparently talked of the romance and angry that he could become a police witness against them.

So they met with other gang members and hatched a terrible plot to silence him.

During the long days of the court case at Leeds, there were claims that the original intention was to burn out cars belong to Ateeq's family, outside their home in Osborne Road, simply to frighten him.

But the anger and rage was fuelled as the gang plotted and planned and the petrol bombs they made in a backstreet garage less than a mile from Ateeq's home were to wreak a deadly revenge.

Seven people died in that night's horrific arson attack; an eighth days later in hospital.

Five of those victims were young sisters - only staying at the house of their grandfather because he had been ill for months and they had flown from Pakistan to visit him.

It was a night of horror that wiped out three generations of a family.

It was a night of horror that stunned not only the large Asian community in Huddersfield but also the entire town, who came together in grief.

And it was a horror that will never, ever be forgotten.

This is the story of a terrible slaughter; the slaughter of the innocents.

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