London: A man imprisoned six years for terrorism offenses before his release last year stabbed several people in London on Friday, two fatally, before being tackled by members of the public and then fatally shot by officers on London Bridge.
Neil Basu, London’s police counterterrorism head, said 28-year-old Usman Khan was attending a program that works to educate prisoners when he launched the attack killing a man and a woman and injuring three others just yards from the site of a deadly 2017 van and knife rampage. Basu said the suspect appeared to be wearing a bomb vest but it turned out to be a hoax explosive device.
Health officials said one of the injured was in critical but stable condition, one was stable and the third had less serious injuries.
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The attack raises difficult questions for Britain’s government and security services. Police said Khan was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offenses and released in December 2018 on license which means he had to meet certain conditions or face recall to prison. Several British media outlets reported that he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
Khan, inspired by the ideology of al-Qaeda terror group, was previously sentenced for his role in the London Stock Exchange bombing in 1990, Dawn reported.
According to the British media reports, Khan -- a British citizen born in the UK -- left school with no qualifications after spending part of his late teens in Pakistan where he lived with his mother when she became ill. On his return to the UK, he started preaching extremism on the internet and attracted a significant following.
In January 2012, Khan pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism contrary to section 5(1) of the UK's Terrorism Act 2006.
Khan was among nine men charged with conspiracy to bomb high-profile London targets in 2010. At that time, a hand-written target list found by the British police counter-terror force at one of the defendant's homes listed the names and addresses of the London mayor Boris Johnson, the American Embassy and the London Stock Exchange.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had long argued that it was a mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early.
"It is very important that we get out of that habit and that we enforce the appropriate sentences for dangerous criminals, especially for terrorists that I think the public will want to see,” he said.
Johnson, who chaired a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee late Friday, said more police would be patrolling the streets in the coming days for reassurance purposes. Police said they were treating the stabbings as a terrorist attack and were not actively looking for any other suspects.
The violence erupted less than two weeks before Britain holds a national election Dec. 12. The main political parties temporarily suspended campaigning in London as a mark of respect.
Metropolitan Police Chief Cressida Dick said officers were called just before 2 p.m. to Fishmongers’ Hall, a conference venue at the north end of London Bridge. The pedestrian and vehicle bridge links the city’s business district with the south bank of the River Thames.
Learning Together, a Cambridge University-backed prison education program was holding a conference there on Friday. Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope said he was devastated to learn that today's hateful attack on London Bridge may have been targeted at staff, students and alumni attending an event organized by the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology.
Police confirmed that the attacker died at the scene.
Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the breathtaking heroism of members of the public who ran towards danger not knowing what confronted him.
“They are the best of us,” Khan said.
Cars and buses on the busy bridge stood abandoned after the shooting, with a white truck stopped diagonally across the lanes.
London Bridge station, one of the city’s busiest rail hubs, was closed for several hours after the attack.
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Scores of police, some armed with submachine guns, ushered office workers and tourists out of the area packed with office buildings, banks, restaurants, and bars. Staff in nearby office blocks were told to stay inside.
As police cleared the streets, staff in shops and restaurants ushered customers into storerooms and basements. Some had been through similar traumatic events in June 2017 when eight people died in the van and knife attack launched by three people inspired by the Islamic State group. The attackers ran down people on the bridge, killing two, before fatally stabbing several people in nearby Borough Market.
Political leaders expressed shock and sorrow at Friday’s attack.
“We will not be cowed by those who threaten us,” Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said. “We must and we will stand together to reject hatred and division."
Both Labour and the Conservatives suspended campaigning in the city after the attack and the prime minister was also canceling political events for Saturday.
Security officials earlier this month downgraded Britain's terrorism threat level from severe to substantial which means an attack is seen as likely rather than highly likely. The assessment was made by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, an independent expert body that evaluates intelligence, terrorist capability, and intentions.
The U.K.'s terror threat was last listed as substantial in August 2014, since then it has held steady at severe, briefly rising to critical in May and September 2017.
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