UK: Raids were conducted in Stafford in the west Midlands on Saturday with growing demands to review laws governing release of prisoners. The demands raised by people come within 24 hours of killing of two by convicted terrorist Usman Khan before being shot dead on London Bridge on Friday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited the scene of the attack, said he wanted to “toughen up sentences” so that those convicted of terrorism offences are not released early. Khan, 28, was released on licence in December 2018, wearing an electronic tag.
Khan was reportedly attending a University of Cambridge conference on prisoner rehabilitation near London Bridge, called ‘Learning Together’. His actions prompted much concern in the university and Cambridge, where election campaigning has been suspended.
Stephen J Toope, Cambridge vice-chancellor, said: “I am devastated to learn that today’s hateful attack on London Bridge may have been targeted at staff, students and alumni attending an event organised by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology”.
“We are in touch with the Metropolitan Police, and awaiting further details of the victims. We mourn the dead and we hope for a speedy recovery for the injured. Our thoughts are with all their families and friends.”
It emerged that Khan wrote a letter in 2012 from the Belmarsh prison, seeking to go on a deradicalisation course, so that he could reform and become “a goof British citizen”.
He wrote: “I would like to do such a course so I can prove to the authorities, my family and society (sic) in general that I don’t carry the views I had before my arrest and also I can prove that at the time I was immature, and now I am much more mature and want to live my life as a good Muslim and also a good citizen of Britain”.
Queen Elizabeth led many tributes to the police and members of the public who restrained Khan. She said in a statement: “Prince Philip and I have been saddened to hear of the terror attacks at London Bridge. We send our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones and who have been affected by yesterday’s terrible violence”.
Khan was imprisoned from 2012 to 2018 for planning attacks, including one aimed at the London Stock Exchange in 2010, the officials told ABC News.
Khan is believed to be the only suspect in the stabbing Friday afternoon that left two people dead and three others injured.
He was confronted by civilians, authorities said, whom officials and the greater public have called heroes.
Responding police officers shot Khan, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, to death, authorities said.
In 2012, nine men who were members of a terrorist network in England and Wales -- including Khan -- were sentenced for plotting attacks that were described as “al-Qaida inspired terrorism,” according to a 2013 report from the U.K.’s counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5.
The report said that one of the attack plans was against the London Stock Exchange.
The men pleaded guilty and were sentenced to between five and 17 years, according to the report and an MI5 statement.
The British counter-terrorism officials also told ABC News that he had links to Pakistan’s tribal areas and planned to run training camps there in an attempt to recruit others.
Neil Basu, assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police said, “Clearly, a key line of enquiry now is to establish how [Khan] came to carry out this attack.” - THE INDEPENDENT
