Usman Khan
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Usman Khan, AKA Abu Saif (10th March 1991 - 29th November 2019) was an Islamic terrorist and community organiser for Al-Muhajiroun.
Early life edit
Khan was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1991. He temporarily attended Haywood High School, but later dropped out to join Al-Muhajiroun as a preacher and community organiser, helping to put together a Sharia conference. In 2008, Khan was arrested on suspicion of terrorism due to his role in Al-Muhajiroun and remained in custody for 20 months before being released without charge due to insufficient evidence.
Christmas Plot edit
In 2010, Khan was one of nine British Muslims involved in the Christmas Plot, an Al-Qaeda inspired plan to bomb the London Stock Exchange and establish a jihadist training camp on a stretch of land in Afghanistan owned by Khan, in which they intended to train recruits to commit more attacks in London. However, a prolonged surveillance operation by MI5 nicknamed "Operation Guava" led to Khan and the other eight perpetrators being arrested. Khan, plot ringleader Mohammed Shahjahan and his deputy Nazam Hussein were deemed the most dangerous of the nine and all received indefinite prison sentences.
Life after prison edit
During their prison sentence, Khan, Hussein and Shahjahan all appealed their indefinite sentences on the grounds that they unfairly characterized them as more dangerous than the other defendants. This resulted in Khan's sentence being changed to sixteen years in prison. He was later released on licence in 2018, and joined a terrorist rehabilitation program known as the Health Identity Intervention Program. Over the course of 2018 and most of 2019, Khan was considered a success story for the UK government's rehabilitation program, and applied for a place at Cambridge University.
2019 London Bridge attack and death edit
On 29th November 2019, Khan was invited to a terrorist rehabilitation conference at Fishmonger's Hall. At 1:58 pm, police were called after Khan arrived in a fake suicide vest threatening to blow up the hall. He then began stabbing people inside the hall, before fleeing after those inside fought back, escaping onto London Bridge, where he stabbed several more people before being restrained by members of the public. The police arrived, and, believing that Khan was about to detonate his suicide vest, pulled away several civilians before shooting him twice, killing him.
Only two people apart from Khan were killed in the attack, 25-year-old Jack Meritt and 23-year-old Saskia Jones, both university students. Three other people were injured, two seriously, but none died. Many people believe the attack to have been inspired by a similar incident in the same location two years earlier committed by Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, but no evidence has been provided for this aside from similarities in the manner of the attacks and both taking place on and around London Bridge.