THE widow of July 7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan challenged Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s plans to quiz suspected terrorists for 56 days without charge.

Hasina Patel was arrested and questioned after the horrific attacks in London just over two years ago in which four men strapped with bombs let off their weapons on Underground trains and a bus, murdering 52 innocent people.

She fears increasing the detention period to 56 days is similar to a prison sentence.

Her husband, a British-born Muslim from Dewsbury, appeared to be a quiet, mild-mannered man, married with a daughter and who worked with children.

But he was an extremist, aiming to kill as many innocent people as possible.

Now for the first time, Hasina Patel has spoken out.

She condemned what her husband did and described how it changed her life for ever.

On what she would say to Mr Brown of his proposals to extend detention without charge to 56 days she said she would take her chance to make a direct appeal.

She said: “I think for anyone who’s experienced it, like now I have, then you know how difficult it is and it’s a punishment in itself.

“And for some people who are innocent it’s like you’re guilty until proven innocent.

“And it’s doing, in effect, a week’s sentence or if it’s say increased to 56 days, to me it’s like a sentence without charge or trial.

“You’re doing two months, you know, with nothing to back that.

“When people get arrested, it can ruin your life. It ruins relationships.

“It can affect your home because your identity, your address, a lot of the time is out there. It can affect your job, it affects your reputation and can turn your life upside down.

“So I think even before arrests are made they should be more sure of their intelligence.”

On the morning of the 7/7 attacks Hasina Patel learned that she had lost the baby she was carrying.

She said: “When I had the scan the midwife said it seems like the baby had stopped growing. She told me I’d lost the baby.”

Hasina Patel had experienced bleeding two days earlier and had gone to the hospital with Khan.

“When he dropped me off at home that was the last I saw of him. He said he was just going out to see his friends.”

Asked if she understood that many would not understand how she could still pray for her husband, Hasina Patel said: “I could completely understand where they come from.

“I would never forgive him if someone did that, if they’d taken my daughter’s life.

“For me to get through this life, it makes it easier for me and for my daughter, I don’t want her to grow up with hatred and it just makes things easier.

“I try not to think about him or what happened too much.

“I try to concentrate on my own life and we’ll all be judged by our actions so I need to make sure my daughter is a good person and I have to think about myself, think about the future.”

She added: “I feel like I’ve lost my own identity. All people know me as his wife and I think that’s all people judge me as.”

Asked if she was happy being a Muslim in this country, she said she was but due to her arrest “I have lost a bit more faith in the police. I’m scared of the police.”