Usman Khan, 28, killed a man and woman in knife rampage on Friday afternoon and injured three other people, who are being treated in hospital

London Bridge attack: Usman Khan was student and personal friend of Anjem Choudary

The Telegraph 30 Nov 2019:

London Bridge attack: Everything we know

- Who was Usman Khan? What we know about the suspect

- London Bridge attack: police identify convicted terrorist who murdered two victims

- ‘I kicked terrorist in the head’, says hero bystander

- Prisoner who confronted terrorist is not a hero, say family of the woman he murdered

- Reconstruction: ‘The police rolled him over . . . and he had a bomb vest’

- UK terror threat level was downgraded just three weeks ago

- Richard Walton:  London Bridge attack a vivid reminder of the enduring terrorism threat against Britain

The London Bridge attacker was a student and personal friend of Anjem Choudary, the notorious Islamist hate preacher.

Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist released less than seven years into a 16-year prison sentence for a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange, had Anjem Choudary’s private mobile phone number stored on his phone at the time of his initial arrest, the Henry Jackson Society has found.

Khan was one of a series of Al-Muhajiroun connected terrorists to be released over a six-month period beginning in the Autumn of 2018.  He was known to have attended a series of Al-Muhajiroun protests and street stalls in the Midlands area prior to his arrest.

Before his conviction for the LSE terror plot, police had previously raided his home in Tunstall over concerns about his links to Choudary.   

Anjem Choudary

Dr Paul Stott a research fellow at the Centre on Radicalisation and Terrorism at Henry Jackson Society, said that “all these years later, and Anjem Choudary’s one-time acolytes are still butchering members of the public on our streets”. 

“Usman Khan was a loyal and integral member of Choudary’s inner-circle and we know him to have been highly regarded by Choudary.”

Dr Stott added that 25 per cent of all Islamist terrorists have some sort of “link to Choudary” and that the “security services must consider immediately recalling Choudary to prison until the threat posed by him and his affiliates has stabilised”.

It comes as Boris Johnson condemned the early release of criminals after it emerged Usman Khan had been freed from prison on an electronic tag.

Two people were murdered and at least three more seriously injured, when the suspected jihadist, wearing a fake suicide vest, went on a rampage at a criminal justice seminar he was attending.

Police named the man as Usman Khan, a 28-year-old from Staffordshire. In 2012, Khan became a convicted terrorist for his role in the Stock Exchange plot, a planned scheme for a Christmas bomb attack on the London Stock Exchange, the American embassy and the home of Boris Johnson, who was then the Mayor of London

It is understood the former prisoner, who was still on licence and whose movements and travel were restricted, had been given permission to attend the event along with other convicted criminals.

The killer is thought to have attended the morning session, taking part in various workshops, in which he described his experiences as a prisoner, before launching his deadly attack without warning just before 2pm.

Jack Merritt named as one of the victim’s of yesterday’s attack

Among those killed in the carnage of the London Bridge attack was law and criminology course leader Jack Merritt, described as someone always on the side of the underdog.

The 25-year-old, who worked at the University of Cambridge’s criminology department, lost his life at an event underpinned by the belief that every one of us who does wrong is capable of redemption.

But among those ex-offenders attending the Fishmongers’ Hall Learning Together event was the man who killed him - as well as other former criminals who came to the assistance of the injured and tried to stop the attacker.

Jack Merritt, who had attended Hill Road Sixth Form in Cambridge, was the course co-ordinator for Learning Together, described as “bringing students in Higher Education & Criminal Justice institutions together in transformative learning communities”.

You can read the full story here

Auto update

Last night’s attack will have brought back ‘horrible memories’, Cressida Dick says….the London Bridge attack would have brought back “horrible memories” from the attacks which struck London Bridge in 2017.

It’s great to see so many people out here, I’m not surprised, it’s London. We don’t let these things stop us from going about our business.

Borough Market is absolutely full of people and they’re getting on with their normal lives.

Having said that, this is an area which has been touched by such terrible violence two-and-a-half years ago.

I know for many people here it’s brought back horrible memories.

She appealed to the public to “look after yourselves and look after each other”, as well as repeating a message for any members of the public with video footage to contact the force.

2:03pm

London Mayor Sadiq Khan responds  to the London Bridge attack

He added: “Don’t forget that for every incident like this, there are many that are thwarted.”

1:17pm

Boris Johnson says prisoners should serve their full term

The Prime Minister says his immediate take away from the London Bridge attack is that the current system isn’t working.

I have long said this system isn’t working. It does not make sense for us as a society to be putting people who are convicted of terrorist offences, serious, violent offences, out on early release.

We argue people should serve the tariff, serve the term, for which they are sentenced.

He added that he hopes it can be “business as usual” as soon as possible. “People want to get on with their lives,” he said. “It’s the run up to Christmas. We can see people out on the streets, shopping already, and that’s a great thing.”