Terror suspect 'was involved in al-Qaeda plot to obtain a dirty bomb'

Terror suspect 'was involved in al-Qaeda plot to obtain a dirty bomb'

AN ALLEGED Islamist terrorist accused of planning attacks on targets in Britain was involved in a plot to buy a “dirty bomb” from the Russian mafia, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Salahuddin Amin was said to have been entrusted by senior figures in a terror cell in Pakistan to act as a go-between in their planned purchase of the radioactive device.

He is standing trial alongside six alleged accomplices for conspiring to detonate explosives at key sites in Britain, causing maximum damage and fatalities. Among the intended targets were the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, the National Grid, synagogues and a nightclub in Central London, the court was told during the second day of the trial.

However, the plotters did not realise that as they pondered which of many potential targets to strike, their movements were being monitored by police, David Waters, QC, for the prosecution, said. Some of their cars and homes had been bugged. One defendant, Jawad Akbar, allegedly said in a recording: “The biggest nightclub in Central London. No one can put their hands up and say they are innocent — those slags dancing around.”

Mr Amin was said in 2001 to have moved to Pakistan where he attended explosives and weapons training camps with five of the other men and supplied equipment for jihad (holy war).

Mr Waters told the jury: “An indication to the trust imposed in Amin and his position in the Pakistani end of the organisation is gained from the passing of information to him in relation to a radioisotope bomb.”

Referring to alleged senior terrorists, Mr Waters said that Mr Amin was asked by Pakistan-based militants to contact a man named Abu Annis. Through Annis contact had been made via the internet with Russian mafia based in Belgium.

Mr Waters said that at least two of the defendants intended to leave Britain for Pakistan in the days before the intended attack on a UK target.

He said that Waheed Mahmood worked for Transco National Grid at its Brighton depot. Computer discs giving detailed plans of Britain’s electricity and gas systems, including pipelines, cables and sub- stations, had been found at another defendant’s house.

“Anyone armed with such information would have no difficulty identifying, in the context of this case, a potential target,” Mr Waters said.

The men had bought 600kg (1,323lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, supposedly for an allotment, even though that amount would cover five football pitches; had hired a lorry and had taken it to a storage depot in West London.

They had refused to answer questions from the curious manager about what they would do with it, and had chosen the password “pink” in reference to a character in the film Reservoir Dogs.

Mr Waters said that staff at the depot eventually became suspicious and contacted police, who exchanged the fertiliser for an inert substance without alerting the men. An undercover officer started working as a receptionist at the depot.

The defendants were said to have acquired other bomb ingredients: aluminium powder had been discovered in a biscuit tin behind a shed at the home of Omar Khyam and his brother, Shujah Mahmood.