Usman Khan (terrorist)

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For other people named Usman Khan, see Usman Khan (disambiguation).
Usman Khan
عثمان خان
UsmanKhan2012.jpg
A 2012 photograph of Khan
Born
Usman Khan

(1991-03-10)10 March 1991
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England[1]
Died29 November 2019(2019-11-29) (aged 28)
London, England
Cause of deathGunshot wound
NationalityBritish[2]
Years active2010–2019
AllegianceAl-Muhajiroun
Details
Killed2
Injured3
WeaponsKitchen knife

Usman Khan (Urdu: عثمان خان‎; 10 March 1991 – 29 November 2019), also known as Abu Saif,[3] was a British terrorist who was convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in 2012 and who was shot dead by City of London Police after being restrained by members of the public whilst committing a knife attack near London Bridge on 29 November 2019, during which he killed two people and injured three others.[4]

Early life[]

Khan was born on 10 March 1991 in Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom, to Pakistani immigrant parents.[5][6][7][8] He attended Haywood High School.[3]

Khan spent some part of his teenage years in Pakistan.[9] According to the British Parliament's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation 2013 report, Khan travelled to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan before his arrest in December 2010.[10][11]

Khan dropped out of school and preached for al-Muhajiroun.[12] He became a community organiser, helping to put together a Sharia conference in 2009.[3]

2008 anti-terror raids[]

Khan's home in Stoke-on-Trent was raided by counter-terrorist police in 2008.[13] Khan was interviewed by the BBC in 2008, when he denied being a terrorist;[14] he issued the same denials to a local paper using a false name. He was 17 at the time.[15] Following a 20-month investigation, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence[3] to charge him with a crime.[12]

2010 arrest and 2012 terrorism conviction[]

See also: Operation Guava

On return from Pakistan,[16] Khan was one of a group of nine men arrested in 2010[17] who were the focus of MI5's anti-terror Operation Guava and in 2012 all pleaded guilty to Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism offences, which included plans to bomb the London Stock Exchange, the Houses of Parliament, the US embassy, two rabbis at two synagogues, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, the home of then London Mayor Boris Johnson,[18][19] build a terrorist training camp in land Khan's family owns in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, attending terrorism related operational meetings, preparing to travel abroad, and assisting others in travelling abroad for terrorist activities.[20][21] Khan, like the others, envisaged returning from their Kashmiri training camp, together with future recruits, to engage in unspecified terror attacks in the UK.[22]

Khan proposed to raise funds in the UK rather than overseas, arguing that supporters in the UK earned in a day what donors in Kashmir earned in a month. He added: "On Jobseeker's Allowance we can earn that, never mind working for that."[23] His home bugged by MI5, he was recorded calling non-Muslims "dogs."[12] Following his arrest, Khan admitted travelling to the plotter's 2010 tactical meetings in Cardiff in November and in Newport in December.[24] Khan's plans to build a terror-training camp in Kashmir never materialised and "there was no evidence that there was any real funding to build it".[25] The group had formed in October.[20] The terror network's organisational chart was found in Khan's home.[19] In addition to confessing to terrorism planning, Khan admitted terrorism fundraising and possession of the Al Qaeda magazine Inspire.[26]

Following his arrest, Khan was known as an expert in field craft; his cell was described as having "well developed field craft" in court documents.[27]

Khan received an indeterminate prison sentence in 2012 with a minimum term of eight years.[28][29][30] On sentencing, the judge said that Khan and his Stoke-on-Trent associates were "more serious jihadis" who operated "at a higher level of efficacy and commitment than the rest", the other six convicts.[12]

Rehabilitation and release from prison[]

Under the indeterminate sentence, Khan was to remain in prison for as long as it was necessary to keep the public safe. However, Khan's original sentence was quashed. Along with Nazam Hussain and Mohammed Shahjahan, also from Stoke, Khan appealed against the sentences and the indeterminate sentences were set aside by the Court of Appeal in 2013. The court, headed by Lord Justice Leveson, found the original decision had "wrongly characterised" the three men as more dangerous than the other defendants.[20][31] Khan's sentence was changed to a 16-year term which allowed him to be automatically released after serving eight years. Khan was allowed to leave Belmarsh Prison on temporary release licence in December 2018.[32] Following his release, Stafford Borough Council provided suitable accommodation for Khan, though the Ministry of Justice said "multiple agencies" were involved in his housing.[33]

During his time under custody, Khan completed the Healthy Identity Intervention Programme, which later became the UK's principal rehabilitation scheme for terrorism convicts. Following Khan's release, he participated in the Desistance and Disengagement Programme, which is designed to "address the root causes of terrorism".[34]

He was considered a "success story" for a Cambridge University rehabilitation programme,[35][12] and was featured as a case study.[3] Khan had been "befriended and helped" by Cambridge University rehabilitation employees, whom he later murdered.[36] The Times reported that Cambridge University was considering admitting Khan as an undergraduate.[12]

In April 2020, the CTC Sentinel published a paper over the extent to which fear of recidivism was "overblown". It described Khan and another recent terrorism recidivist as "eye-catching outliers", arguing that less than 5% of terrorists such as Khan attack again.[37]

2019 attack[]

Main article: 2019 London Bridge stabbing

The terms of Khan's temporary release licence did not allow for travel to London; special permission would have been needed for him to participate in Cambridge University's Learning Together "Five Year Celebration" on the day he carried out the stabbing.[38][39] Khan sat quietly during the celebration event, attending storytelling and writing workshops; even giving feedback on one.[40] He then stabbed two Learning Together organisers in the chest,[41] killing them, and injured three other people. He was wearing an electronic tag and a fake suicide jacket when he was shot following the stabbing.[42]

Burial and aftermath[]

Following his death, Khan's body was taken to a mosque in Birmingham, for a ritual janazah Muslim funerary ceremony.[43] The body was then flown to Islamabad.[44] Khan's burial took place in Kajlani in Kashmir.[45]

"Usman Khan Call 4 Justice" graffiti in support of Khan appeared on multiple walls in his Stoke hometown in the week following his death.[46][47]

Links to terror group[]

Khan had previously been connected to Al-Muhajiroun, the group led by Anjem Choudary.[29][48][30] He was said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda.[49] Khan's solicitor Vajahat Sharif claimed that Khan had become disillusioned with Al-Muhajiroun and that during his prison sentence he had repeatedly requested the help of a deradicaliser, to no avail. Sharif said that in 2018 Khan appeared to be rehabilitated, and that he may have been "re-groomed" by extremists after his release.[50]

Political and social debate[]

In 2012, after being convicted of offences related to a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange, Khan was sentenced to be kept in prison for an indeterminate time. This meant that he could not be released whilst he was still considered to be a danger to the public. Following an appeal in 2013, his indeterminate sentence was quashed, and in its place he was given a 16-year prison sentence, which meant he would be entitled to automatic release on licence after having served eight years.[51] Questions were also raised about the level of monitoring he was subject to by the authorities responsible after his release.[51][52] The parole board confirmed that it had no involvement in deciding when Khan was released from prison, saying Khan "appears to have been released automatically on licence" even though he had a "serious long-term plan" and a commitment to terrorism.[51][20]

Chris Phillips, former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, commented the justice system was "playing Russian roulette" with the lives of the public. Phillips commented that the original trial judge "wanted this man in prison for a very very long time", and described Khan's release as "quite incredible". Paul Gibson, former head of counter-terrorism at the UK Ministry of Defence, supported the criticism, commenting on the release: "A lot of people will find that extraordinary."[51]

References[]

  1. ^ De Simone, Daniel (30 November 2019). "What we know about the London Bridge attacker". BBC News. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  2. ^ "Usman Khan: The suspected terrorist behind the London Bridge attacks". Gulf News. 30 November 2019.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e McInnes, Kathie (6 December 2019). "How London Bridge murderer Usman Khan's radicalisation began in Stoke-on-Trent". stokesentinel.
  4. ^ "LATEST: London Bridge terror attack". United Kingdom: Metropolitan Police.
  5. ^ Kirby, Dean (2 December 2019). "Usman Khan: why the London Bridge attack terrorist was released from prison". iNews. iNews. Retrieved 3 December 2019. The son of parents from the disputed region of Kashmir in Pakistan
  6. ^ Ali Shah, Murtaza (30 November 2019). "Usman Khan had no relation with Pakistan". Geo TV. Retrieved 3 December 2019. Usman Khan was born in Stoke-on-Trent to working-class immigrant parents from Azad Kashmir.
  7. ^ Burnett, Tom (30 November 2019). "London Bridge attack suspect from Stoke-on-Trent – police confirm". The Sentinel.
  8. ^ Townsend, Mark; Iqbal, Nosheen (30 November 2019). "'We don't understand how Usman Khan ended up like this'". The Guardian.
  9. ^ "London Bridge Attacker Named as Usman Khan: Police". Newsweek Pakistan. 30 November 2019. Khan spent some time in Pakistan in his late teens
  10. ^ "The Terrorism Acts in 2012: report of the Independent Reviewer" (PDF). Government of the United Kingdom. 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  11. ^ "Usman Khan profile: terrorist who wanted to bomb London Stock Exchange". The Guardian. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Tom Harper; Jon Ungoed-Thomas; Caroline Wheeler (1 December 2019). "London Bridge attack: poster boy for rehabilitation. And killer". The Times. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  13. ^ "London Bridge: Who was the attacker?". BBC News. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  14. ^ "'I ain't no terrorist' Usman Khan says in resurfaced BBC interview from 2008 | Watch News Videos Online". Global News.
  15. ^ "Who was Usman Khan?". The Daily Telegraph. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  16. ^ "Stoke-on-Trent terrorist Usman Khan described Osama Bin Laden as 'beautiful'". The Sentinel. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019. He had recently returned from Pakistan and we draw the inference that he had been there and he was going back there within a few weeks
  17. ^ Simon Israel (27 December 2010). "Christmas 'terror plot' targeted London landmarks". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 4 October 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  18. ^ Caroline Gammell (27 December 2010). "Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to 'blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b Duncan Gardham (1 February 2012). "Terrorists admit plot to bomb London Stock Exchange and US Embassy". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Association, Press (30 November 2019). "Why was London Bridge attacker Usman Khan released?". Evening Express. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  21. ^ "Terrorism gang jailed for plotting to blow up London Stock Exchange". The Telegraph. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  22. ^ "Terror group members who planned to bomb London Stock Exchange jailed". The Guardian. Press Association. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2019. It was envisaged by them all that ultimately they and the other recruits may return to the UK as trained and experienced terrorists available to perform terrorist attacks in this country.
  23. ^ "Pakistan training camp discussed in secret recording". BBC News. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  24. ^ "London Stock Exchange bomb plot admitted by four men". BBC News. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  25. ^ Shah, Murtaza Ali (30 November 2019). "FACTCHECK: Usman Khan had no relation with Pakistan". Geo.tv. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  26. ^ Paul Hannon; Stephen Fidler (30 November 2019). "Attack by Convicted Terrorist Prompts U.K. to Review Sentencing". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  27. ^ Townsend, Mark; Iqbal, Nosheen (30 November 2019). "'We don't understand how Usman Khan ended up like this'". The Guardian.
  28. ^ "Nine jailed over bomb plot and terror camp plan". BBC News. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b Wahlquist, Calla; Rawlinson, Kevin; Weaver, Matthew; Dodd, Vikram; Dodd, Vikram (30 November 2019). "London Bridge attacker named as Usman Khan, 28 – live updates". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  30. ^ Jump up to: a b Gemma Fox (30 November 2019). "London Bridge attacker is named by police". The Independent. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  31. ^ Bird, Steve (30 November 2019). "Leveson ruling opened the door to killer's early release". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  32. ^ "London Bridge attack: What we know so far". BBC News. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  33. ^ Guttridge, Richard. "'Multiple agencies' allowed London Bridge killer Usman Khan to live in Stafford". Express & Star.
  34. ^ "London Bridge: Usman Khan completed untested rehabilitation scheme". BBC News. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  35. ^ Hayley Dixon; Victoria Ward; Greg Wilford (1 December 2019). "London bridge attacker was poster boy for rehab scheme he targeted". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  36. ^ "Family of 'caring' London Bridge attack victim Saskia Jones tell of 'devastation'". Daily Mirror. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019. Mr Merritt said that his son had helped Khan, adding: "I can't imagine how someone who had been befriended and helped by someone like Jack could then, in a fairly calculated way, kill them.
  37. ^ Thomas Renard (April 2020). "Overblown: Exploring the Gap Between the Fear of Terrorist Recidivism and the Evidence". CTC Sentinel. 13 (4). Retrieved 28 April 2020. This was approved despite evidence that Khan and Amman are more likely to be eye-catching outliers than a harbinger of things to come. Indeed, according to recently released figures, only six terrorist offenders have been reconvicted of a further terrorist offense in England and Wales, out of 196 offenders released between January 2013 and December 2019 (3%).
  38. ^ Martin Evans; Steve Bird; Greg Wilford (30 November 2019). "Who was Usman Khan? The attacker who hoodwinked authorities to fulfil his terrorism dream of targeting London". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  39. ^ "Tributes paid to 'brilliant' London Bridge attack victim Saskia Jones". The Guardian. 11 December 2019.
  40. ^ Sian Griffiths; Joe Cook (8 December 2019). "London Bridge attack: 'The killer sat feet away from me. Now I fear for the scheme that helped me go straight'". The Times. Retrieved 9 December 2019. Khan sat quietly through the morning session and took part in storytelling and writing workshops. "He was unremarkable. I know that in one of the workshops he responded to one of the questions on the feedback,"
  41. ^ Jamie Grierson (10 December 2019). "Islamist extremism remains dominant UK terror threat, say experts". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2019. An inquest heard they had been stabbed in the chest
  42. ^ Alison Chung. "London Bridge terror: Attacker named as convicted terrorist Usman Khan". Sky News. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  43. ^ David Aaro (6 December 2019). "London Bridge attacker's body flown to Pakistan for burial: report". Fox News Channel. Retrieved 7 December 2019. A pre-burial ritual called Janaza took place at a mosque in Birmingham
  44. ^ James Rodger; Matt Simpson (6 December 2019). "Body of London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan flown to Pakistan for burial". The Sentinel. Retrieved 8 December 2019. Officials at Islamabad International Airport confirmed to Sky News Usman Khan's body arrived at the Pakistani capital today.
  45. ^ Charles Hymas; Ben Farmer (6 December 2019). "London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan is buried in family village in Pakistan after UK backlash". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2019. his funeral, in the 3,000-strong village of Kajlani at 4 pm local time had been attended by a "large number" of people.
  46. ^ ""Shocking" graffiti supporting London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan has emerged in Stoke-on-Trent". ITV News.
  47. ^ Parker, Hayley; Davies, Ruby (11 December 2019). "Vile graffiti supporting terrorist Usman Khan daubed on estate where he grew up". stokesentinel.
  48. ^ Mann, Tanveer (30 November 2019). "London Bridge attacker who left two dead named as 28-year-old Usman Khan". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  49. ^ "Usman Khan profile: terrorist who wanted to bomb London Stock Exchange". The Guardian. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  50. ^ Dodd, Vikram (30 November 2019). "London Bridge attacker had asked for help to deradicalise – lawyer". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  51. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Boris Johnson under pressure to explain why a convicted terrorist was released early to commit London bridge attack". The Independent. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  52. ^ "Usman Khan: Boris Johnson under pressure to explain why convicted terrorist was released early to commit London bridge attack". Telegraph UK. 30 November 2019.
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