UK court hears details of 8 bombing plans by three suspects: Irfan Naseer, Ashik Ali and Irfan Khalid
Three terrorists developed plots to set off eight suicide bombs which could have been bigger than the July 7 London attacks, a British court heard Monday.
Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali
Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, are accused of being “central figures” in the extremist plot, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court were told.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC said: “The police successfully disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005 had it been allowed to run its course. The defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or to detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.”
All the men are accused of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, which they deny.
Naseer is accused of five counts of the offence, Khalid four and Ali three, all between Christmas Day, 2010, and September 19, 2011.
The charges are alleged to have included planning a bombing campaign, collecting money for terrorism and recruiting others for terrorism.
Nasser and Khalid are also accused of travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, and it is alleged that Naseer also helped others to travel to the country for the same purpose.
In total, 11 men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and one woman were arrested over the alleged plot.
Mr Altman told the jury that the three defendants were “central figures” in the plot, and said they are “jihadists” and “senior members of a home-grown terror cell”.
The group are also accused of making bogus charity collections in Birmingham for Muslim Aid.
It is alleged that the group sent four other local men to Pakistan to receive terrorist training – Naweed Ali, 25, and Ishaaq Hussain, Khobaib Hussain and Shahid Khan, all 20.
They are also accused of persuading another two to take part in their plot rather than fighting abroad – Mohammed Rizwan, 33, and Bahader Ali, 29.
