The Queen and her soldiers will be in the hellfire
What Uber driver wrote ‘before taking samurai sword to Buckingham Palace’
AN Uber driver inspired by Islamic State attacked police at buckingham Palace with a samurai sword because he hated the Queen, a court heard yesterday.
Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 27, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he tried to wield the 4ft weapon at officers.
He was wrestled to the ground and arrested amid fears his Toyota Prius could be concealing a bomb.
Hours earlier he had written a suicide note, saying the ‘Queen and her soldiers will all be in the hellfire’.
Giving evidence at Chowdhury’s trial, Sgt Gavin Hutt described spotting the Prius and thinking the driver was drunk or performing a ‘dodgy move’.
‘As I approached the driver was staring at me quite intently, almost with a crazed look, so I thought perhaps he was on drugs,’ he said. ‘I saw the weapon in the central console near the gear stick. I was trying to restrain him and stop him getting to what he had in his hand.
‘He was using all his force to get the object, to pull it out. He kept saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ over and over. It was pretty clear this was terrorist incident, given the location, what he was shouting, he had a sword and was trying to use it.’
Sgt Hutt said Chowdhury was finally held down 20 to 30 metres from his car: ‘That’s because I was worried he might have an IeD or improvised device that could be triggered in the car.’
The Old bailey was told the incident took place on the evening of August 25 last year.
Possibly due to a satnav error Chowdhury had already driven to a pub called the Windsor Castle, in Windsor, and to the Coldstream Guards barracks a short distance from buckingham Palace.
The court was told he did ‘a bit of a tour’ of Windsor before returning to the capital along the M4.
Jurors were shown footage of the defendant grappling with the officers, who sprayed him with CS gas.
Tim Cray, prosecuting, said the officers could not have known what Chowdhury was planning. ‘It was down to the quick reactions of the police that the defendant was stopped,’ he said.
‘As officers got out of the car, they heard the defendant say words to the effect “It’s all a bit f ***** up”.
‘They then saw him reach for something that turned out to be a sword. There was a short, desperate struggle.’ Police found Chowdhury had sent a suicide note to his family three hours before the incident, the court heard.
It read: ‘Tell everyone that I love them and that they should struggle against the enemies of Allah with their lives and their property.
‘The Queen and her soldiers will all be in the hellfire – they go to war with Muslims around the world and kill them without any mercy.
‘They are the enemies that Allah tells us to fight.’ The court heard that despite being born in London to a close and supportive family Chowdhury had a keen interest in Islamic State online.
He had watched the Channel 4 drama The State, about british citizens going to Syria, and recommended it to his family.
Investigators also discovered that he had searched the internet for beheadings and the murderous actions of Jihadi John.
Once he remarked ‘f*** the police’ after discussing the Westminster attacker Khalid Masood on WhatsApp.
And several days before the attack he sent images of a british soldier in red tunic and bearskin hat, a knife and an ‘Arabic figure’ on the messaging platform.
In a police interview, Chowdhury claimed he wanted to challenge police over british foreign policy.
Mr Cray added: ‘He said he was going to confront the officers but they grabbed him and attacked him. He said “the majority of people just stay quiet when there’s so much going on in all over the world”.
‘He wanted to do something so he was not complicit with those who do nothing.’
Chowdhury, of Luton, denies preparing acts of terrorism, claiming he wanted simply to die at the hands of police.
‘A desperate struggle