Westminster killer had links to hotbed of extremism in UK
THE full extent of the Westminster attacker’s links to a ‘hotbed of terror’ in a British town can be laid bare today.
Khalid Masood spent time with the extremist group Al- Muhajiroun which influenced a generation of home-grown terrorists.
The 52-year-old lived in Luton alongside dangerous Islamic fanatics who have been responsible for some of the most chilling terror plots in the UK.
During his three years in the town Masood appeared on MI5’s radar as they investigated terrorists planning to bomb a Territorial Army base, sources said. Inquiries into him were not pursued as he was not considered a threat.
Security services started to re-examine his links to extremism in Luton after he murdered three people by driving a car into them then stabbed a policeman to death before being shot dead in the grounds of Parliament last Wednesday.
Masood moved to Luton in 2009 with Rohey Hydara, who would become his second wife, after two stints teaching English in Saudi Arabia. By this stage he had converted to Islam and was beginning to express an interest in jihad.
He got a job teaching English at an Islamic school in Britannia House which is just yards from where Al-Muhajiroun distributed extremist literature from a makeshift stall on the pavement.
Founded by hate preachers Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the group had a strong presence in Luton for more than 20 years. Masood is understood to have picked up pamphlets from the stall and formed friendships with some of its members.
His semi-detached home was a twominute walk from a terraced house where members of Al- Muhajiroun encouraged others to commit jihad during meetings under a marquee in the back garden. The group’s ringleaders were finally jailed last month after a lengthy undercover operation by counter terrorism officers. Sentencing them, Judge Michael Topolski QC said they encouraged ‘support for a bloodthirsty terrorist organisation’.
At one meeting in the marquee, a hate preacher called Mohammed Sufiyan Choudry, 23, told young children: ‘Imagine tomorrow 40 trucks were to drive down Oxford Street full of explosives. How much are you willing to sacrifice?’
At another Rajib Khan, 38, a father of three, shouted: ‘We will be victorious. We are on the offensive right now.’ Khan’s nephew Junead Khan, 26, who was present at several of the meetings, hatched a plot to stage a road accident and then execute a US airman outside a base in East Anglia.
He was jailed for life last year after the court heard he was planning to leave the country and join Islamic State with a third member of the family, Shazib Khan, 24, who was jailed for eight years. Junead and Shazib lived in a modern semi 200 yards from Masood’s home.
Masood was a fitness fanatic and is thought to have come into contact at a local gym with members of the gang who planned to bomb the Territorial Army base in Luton.
Four Al- Qaeda inspired terrorists – Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, Syed Hussain and Umar Arshad – were jailed for a total of 44 years in 2013 after admitting their roles in the plot. Masood lived near all four and only yards from Abu Rahin Aziz, a jihadi who was killed in a drone strike in 2015 while fighting for Islamic State in Syria.
He was also a close neighbour of Taimour Abdulwahab, the Swedish student who blew himself up in Stockholm in 2010 after becoming radicalised when he attended university in the Bedfordshire town. Last night a security source told the Mail: ‘It is no secret that Luton has been a hotbed of terror for a number of years.’
Yesterday Miss Hydara said she was ‘saddened and shocked’ by what her husband had done. Miss Hydara, 39, who has two children with Masood, said: ‘I totally condemn his actions.’
‘A bloodthirsty organisation’