Nine in plot inspired by al-Qaida to bomb Stock Exchange jailed

Three of the Islamist extremists, who planned to raise funds for the camp in Pakistan and recruit Britons to attend it, received indeterminate sentences for public protection at London’s Woolwich Crown Court yesterday.

Mohammed Shahjahan 27, was jailed for a minimum term of eight years and 10 months, while fellow Stoke-on-Trent-based radicals Usman Khan, 20, and Nazam Hussain, 26, were ordered to serve at least eight years. The court heard the trio planned to establish a terrorist camp in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and encourage a “significant” number of British Muslims to train there.

Khan and Hussain planned to receive military instruction themselves before “obtaining first-hand terrorist experience in Kashmir”, the hearing was told.

Mr Justice Wilkie, said this was a “serious, long-term venture in terrorism” that could also have resulted in atrocities in Britain. The judge said they were “more serious jihadists” than their fellow defendants and observed that father-of-two Shahjahan was regarded as the group’s leader.

Four fundamentalists who plotted to plant a pipe bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange, all received extended sentences, meaning they spend an extra five years on licence after they are freed from prison.

Abdul Miah, 25, from Cardiff, was jailed for 16 years and 10 months. His brother, Gurukanth Desai, 30, from Cardiff, and Shah Rahman, 28, from east London, were jailed for 12 years.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 22, from east London, who was described as the “linchpin” of the group, was sentenced to 13 years and eight months. He spoke about carrying out a “Mumbai-style” attack at the Houses of Parliament or the London Eye,

Omar Latif, 28, from Cardiff, was jailed for 10 years and four months, with an extended period on licence of another five years, for attending meetings with the intention of assisting others to prepare or commit acts of terrorism while Mohibur Rahman, 27, from Stoke, received a five-year prison sentence for possessing two copies of the online al-Qaida magazine Inspire for terrorist purposes.