A convicted Islamist terrorist, who spent part of his teens in Pakistan and released last year from a UK prison, is suspected to be the man who stabbed two people to death in a terror attack on London Bridge. Two people were killed and several others injured in the London Bridge attack on Friday. The Scotland Yard confirmed that a male suspect, later identified as Khan, wearing a hoax bomb vest was shot dead at the scene. Police had identified the suspect as 28-year-old Usman Khan, inspired by the ideology of al-Qaeda terror group, was previously sentenced to 16 years in prison term for his role in the London Stock Exchange bombing in 1990.
But, who was the terrorist? According to The Telegraph, at the time of his sentencing in 2012, the judge warned that he was a "serious jihadist" who should not be released while he remained a threat to the public. Khan left school with no qualifications after spending part of his late teens in Pakistan, where he lived with his mother when she became ill, it said. The BBC reported that Khan was out on licence from prison when he killed two people and injured three others in the stabbing attack on Friday, before he was shot dead by the Scotland Yard. Khan was living in Stafford since being released from prison on December last, the report noted. At 19, he was the youngest of a group of four men from Stoke-on-Trent who took an active part in the local branch of al-Mujahiroun—a militant Salafi outfit that counted radical preacher Anjem Choudary among its ranks, the Times of India reported.
In February 2012, Khan was sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2013, the Court of Appeal sentenced him to a 16-year jail term after he was allegedly caught . A 2012 judgment by a UK court bares out further details of his radicalisation. According to the judgment, Khan "fundraised for their plans to establish and recruit for a terrorist military training facility under the cover of a madrassa on land owned by Usman Khan’s family [supposedly in PoK]". And, this was a plan Khan took seriously. He, and others, wanted a "more long term and sustained path, to establish and operate that terrorist military training facility, at which Khan would train, which would make them, and others whom they would recruit to be trained there, more serious and effective terrorists." The document also noted that "they would initially operate in Kashmir [unclear whether Jammu and Kashmir or PoK], but later may return to the UK and may commit acts of terror in this jurisdiction."
The judgment goes: "First, they were trying to raise funds to build a madrassa beside an already existing mosque in Kashmir: second, the long term plan included making the madrassas available for men who would be fighting to bring sharia to Kashmir in Pakistan. Third, the plan included fire arms training in or around the madrassa; fourth, they did not intend to participate in an act of terrorism in the UK in the immediate future." They planned "sending letter bombs through the post, attacking pubs used by British racist groups, attacking a high profile target with an explosive device and a 'Mumbai' [26/11] style attack by terrorists".
On Saturday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack. "The person who carried out the London attack... was a fighter from the Islamic State, and did so in response to calls to target citizens of coalition countries," IS said, referring to a multi-country alliance against the group.
