From home videos of the ringleader, Mohammad Sidique Khan, cooing over his baby daughter to the “to-do lists” written by the bombers in their final days, the trial of Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil offered a new insight into the preparations for the July 7 attacks, and the four men who would go on to carry out the suicide bombings that killed 52.
The police believe the bombers were schooled by the al-Qaeda operatives when they travelled to Pakistan. Khan twice attended training camps there and went a final time with Aldgate bomber Shehzad Tanweer in late 2004. It was on this trip that authorities believe their plans changed from fighting overseas to an attack in the U.K.
Ali claimed Khan and Tanweer came to him in Pakistan to tell him they were heading back home “to do a couple of things for the brothers.”
The trial also revealed:
— Previously unseen footage that showed Khan, who would go on to kill six people near Edgware Road, tenderly saying goodbye to his six-month-old daughter before going to Pakistan. Cradling the child in his arms he tells her that he is going away “for the sake of Islam.”
— How the bombers may have deliberately dropped ID and bank cards some distance from where they sat before they detonated their devices, so the documents would survive and they could be easily identified as the perpetrators and “get credit” for what they had done.
No comments:
Post a Comment