6 Admit Yorkshire EDL Terror Plot
30 April 2013, 11:58 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
6 men have pleaded guilty to terror charges after planning to attack an EDL march and rally in Dewsbury with nail bombs.
The plot to attack the English Defence League (EDL) protest on June 30th last year only failed because the march finished early.
Anti-terror officers were not aware of the plot despite one of the men being under surveillance.
Jewel Uddin, Omar Mohammed Khan, Mohammed Hasseen, Anzal Hussain, Mohammed Saud and Zohaib Ahmed have all admitted preparing an act of terrorism between May 1 and July 4 last year.
Another of the group, Zohaib Ahmed, was also on bail for possession of terrorist documents at the time of the plot.
All of the men except Hasseen travelled to the rally armed with two shotguns, swords, knives, a nail bomb containing 458 pieces of shrapnel, and a partially assembled pipe bomb, ready to cause mass injuries and deaths.
The nail bomb was an 18-inch (46cm) long rocket which had been stuffed with shrapnel and was to be powered by explosives taken from at least two large fireworks.
Police estimated there could have been up to 750 EDL marchers at the Dewsbury event, but also dozens of officers and innocent passers-by.
The plan failed by chance, because they arrived at 4pm when the rally had dispersed by 2pm.
The planned attack was only uncovered because a traffic officer stopped Uddin and Khan on the M1 as they travelled back to their home town, Birmingham.
He made checks on their Renault Laguna, which came up as being uninsured, and so the car was impounded.
It was only two days later that staff at the pound near Sheffield looked at the contents of the Renault and found the gang's arsenal.
There were also 10 copies of a hate-filled note addressed to the enemies of Islam, the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron.
It said: "This is a message to the enemies of Allah and his messenger. This is a message to the kafir (non-believer) female devil and self-proclaimed Queen Elizabeth and her accursed jubilee, fooling a nation of blind sheep to your self-proclaimed royalty and majesty.''
The document addressed the EDL directly, saying: "To the EDL (English Drunkards League). O enemies of Allah! We have heard and seen you openly insulting the final Messenger of Allah... you should know that for every action there is a reaction.
"Today is a day of retaliation (especially) for your blasphemy of Allah and his Messenger Muhammad. We love death more than you love life. The penalty for blasphemy of Allah and his Messenger Muhammad is death.
"What we did today was a direct retaliation of your insulting of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and also in retaliation of your crusade against Islam/Muslims on a global scale. It is of the greatest honour for us to do what we did.''
They will be sentenced on June 6.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of Greenwich, told the men: "This will attract significant custody. There is no doubt about that.''
