Mohammad Sidique Khan
Encyclopedia
Mohammad Sidique Khan was the oldest of the four homegrown
Homegrown terrorism
Homegrown terrorism is commonly associated with an international organization rather than being a ‘lone wolf’ act committed by isolated and disturbed individuals. It constitutes terrorist attacks from within the target nation, often Western...

 suicide bombers and believed to be the leader responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

, in which bombs were detonated on three London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 trains and one bus in central London suicide attack
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...

s, killing 52 people excluding the attackers and injured over 700. Khan bombed the Edgware Road train in which six people died, including himself.

On 1 September 2005, a videotape emerged featuring Khan. The videotape, shown by Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

 Television, also shows Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...

, who is the highest leader of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. The two men do not appear together, and the British government says that Al Qaeda was not connected with the bombing. The Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 believes the tape was edited after the suicide attacks and dismisses it as evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement. In the film, Khan declares, "I and thousands like me have forsaken everything for what we believe" and refers to his expectation that the media would already have painted a picture of him in accordance with government "spin". He goes on to say, "Your democratically elected governments continually perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support makes you directly responsible. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation."

Biography

Born in St James's University Hospital, Leeds
St James's University Hospital, Leeds
St. James's University Hospital in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, popularly known as Jimmy's, is one of the United Kingdom's most famous hospitals...

, Khan grew up in Beeston but moved to Lees Holm in Dewsbury
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...

, near Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 in early 2005. His father, Tika Khan, a foundry worker, was born in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. His mother is Mamida Begum. He received his secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...

 at South Leeds High School, formerly the Matthew Murray High School, which was also attended by Hasib Hussain
Hasib Hussain
Hasib Mir Hussain was one of four homegrown terrorists who detonated bombs on three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombings....

, the 7 July bus bomber. Khan went on to study at Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan University is a British University with three campuses. Two are situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England while the third is situated in Bhopal, India...

. In 1999 he came under the influence of radical Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal
Abdullah el-Faisal
Abdullah el-Faisal is a muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, and...

.

Khan was married to Hasina Patel, who is of Indian Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 descent, a Community Enrichment Officer, who had worked in schools with special needs pupils. They met at Leeds Metropolitan University and married in 2001. Their daughter, Maryam, was born in May 2004. Khan worked at Hillside Primary School in Leeds as a "learning mentor
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....

" with the children of immigrant families who had just arrived in Britain. Khan's colleagues commented that he was a quiet individual who did not talk about his religious or political beliefs. He was introduced to MPs
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Hilary Benn
Hilary Benn
Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...

 and Jon Trickett
Jon Trickett
Jon Hedley Trickett is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire since a 1996 by-election...

 during his school's trip to the House of Commons
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

 in July 2004.

Khan was also involved in the community-run Hamara Healthy Living Centre in Beeston, and worked at its youth outreach project, the Hamara Youth Access Point
Hamara Youth Access Point
The Hamara Youth Access Point is a drop-in centre for teens in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, operated by the Hamara Healthy Living Centre, an Islamic charity partly funded by the UK government...

 (HYAP). Staff at the centre have confirmed that two of the London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer
Shehzad Tanweer
Shehzad Tanweer was one of four men who detonated explosives in three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombing...

 and Hasib Hussain, frequented the HYAP. Khan used the outreach project as a recruitment centre, according to a friend of his who spoke to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

. Khan attended the Stratford Street mosque
Stratford Street mosque
Stratford Street Mosque is a mosque in Beeston, Leeds, England.Three people responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings were regulars at Friday prayers at the mosque. The mosque is close to the home of Tanweer, who caused the Aldgate explosion...

 in Leeds.

His mother-in-law, Farida Patel, is also involved in education and works as a council liaison officer at a school in Dewsbury. In 1998 she was the first Asian woman to be invited to a Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

 garden party, meeting the Queen and other members of the royal family, in recognition for her work amongst the Muslim community in Dewsbury, and again in 2004. She was said to have been "devastated" by the actions of her son-in-law. According to his birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...

, Khan was registered as "Mohammad Sidique Khan". Other spellings of his name include Mohammed Sadique Khan and Mohammad Sadiq Khan.

London bombings

On the morning of 7 July 2005, Khan travelled by car with his three accomplices to Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....

 in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, where the four men caught a train to London King's Cross railway station.

From there, Khan entered the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 and boarded a Circle Line Tube
The Tube
The Tube may refer to:*The London Underground* "The Tube", slang for Television, from the term cathode ray tube*The Tube , an ITV/Sky programme featuring the work of staff on the London Underground...

 train heading west, travelling four stops to Edgware Road, a heavily Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 neighbourhood of London. The bomb detonated at 8.50 a.m., just as the train was pulling out of Edgware Road station. Personal documents of Khan's were found on the train.

Intelligence assessments

Khan is alleged to have travelled regularly to Pakistan and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 to attend military training camps, and is also believed to have spent time in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.
In 2001 Khan was alleged to have learned bomb-making at the Malakand training camp in Pakistan.
He is also alleged to have trained with Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n terror group Jemaah Islamiyah
Jemaah Islamiyah
Jemaah Islamiah , is a Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, Singapore and Brunei...

 and to be directly involved with the 2002 Bali bombing
2002 Bali bombing
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was claimed as the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia according to the current police general, killing 202 people,...

.

According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...

, Khan travelled to Israel on 19 February 2003, staying only one night and leaving the next day. Maariv reports that he was suspected of having helped to plan the 30 April 2003 suicide bombing of the Mike's Place
Mike's Place
The Mike's Place suicide bombing was a Palestinian terrorist attack on a bar in Tel Aviv, Israel on April 30, 2003, killing three civilians and wounding 50.-History of Mike's Place:...

 bar in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 which killed three Israelis, carried out by two British citizens of Pakistani descent. The Israeli government allegedly played down the report.

According to Ron Suskind
Ron Suskind
Ron Suskind is a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and best-selling author. He was the senior national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000 and has published the books A Hope in the Unseen, The Price of Loyalty, The One Percent Doctrine, The Way of the World and...

's The One Percent Doctrine
The One Percent Doctrine
The One Percent Doctrine is a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind about America's hunt for terrorists since September 11th.On July 24th 2006, it reached number 3 on the New York Times Best Seller list....

, the NSA had been monitoring phone calls and emails between Khan and several Islamic radicals from the United States and England, including Ahmed Omar Abu Ali
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is an American who was convicted of providing material support to the al Qaeda terrorist network and conspiracy to assassinate President George W. Bush.-Background:...

. Just prior to Khan's planned trip to the US, NSA intercepted email exchanges between him and some of his associates discussing a desire to "blow up synagogues on the East Coast". According to Suskind, the CIA wanted to let Khan into the US so that the FBI could put him under surveillance, but the FBI resisted on grounds that, as one FBI case agent stated, "We just can't take the risk ... he goes up and blows up a temple in Washington." US government officials put Khan on a no-fly list to prevent him from entering the country. Suskind was critical of the decision, which the author suggested tipped him off to the fact that he was known to US authorities and might have caused him to be more cautious with his communication to avoid further surveillance.

British intelligence sources and circumstantial evidence suggested that this theory may have resulted from a confusion between two different Mohammed Khans, although it seems that Suskind stood by his claim.

According to David Leppard
David Leppard
David Leppard is a British journalist and assistant investigations editor of The Sunday Times. He is the author of books on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Waco siege, and Special Branch, the British counter-terrorism and national-security police....

 in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...

, Khan was assessed by MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

 in 2004, after his name appeared during an investigation into a plan to detonate a 600-lb truck bomb in London. MI5 concluded that Khan's link to the plotters was indirect, and he was not placed under surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

. MI5 was later criticised for failing to follow up leads relating to Khan. The service responded to the criticisms. Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...

 published what it said were excerpts from the transcript of the tape.

US intelligence officials have said that Khan was known to Mohammed Junaid Babar
Mohammed Junaid Babar
Mohammed Junaid Babar is a Pakistani American who, after pleading guilty to terrorist related offences in New York, testified in March 2006 against a group of men accused of plotting 21 July 2005 London bombings...

, who has pleaded guilty in the US to providing material support to al-Qaeda. Babar, who told investigators that he worked on a plan to blow up pubs, train stations, and restaurants in the UK, identified Khan as someone he had met in Pakistan.

On 18 July 2005, the Pakistani government released video footage of Khan arriving at Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

 airport on 19 November 2004 with Shehzad Tanweer, another of the London bombers, on Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey, headquartered in the Turkish Airlines General Management Building on the grounds of Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy, Bakirköy district, Istanbul...

 flight TK 1056. Khan and Tanweer stayed in Pakistan until 8 February 2005, then flew back to London together. A third member of the London group, 18-year-old Hasib Hussain
Hasib Hussain
Hasib Mir Hussain was one of four homegrown terrorists who detonated bombs on three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombings....

, arrived in Karachi on 15 July 2004 from Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...

, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, on flight SV714.

See also

  • Shehzad Tanweer
    Shehzad Tanweer
    Shehzad Tanweer was one of four men who detonated explosives in three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombing...

    , Aldgate
    Aldgate
    Aldgate was the eastern most gateway through London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the east end of London. Aldgate gives its name to a ward of the City...

     train
  • Hasib Hussain
    Hasib Hussain
    Hasib Mir Hussain was one of four homegrown terrorists who detonated bombs on three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombings....

    , No. 30 bus
  • Germaine Lindsay
    Germaine Lindsay
    Germaine Maurice Lindsay , also known as Abdullah Shaheed Jamal, was one of the four homegrown terrorists who detonated bombs on three trains on the London Underground and one bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombings, killing 56 people , and injuring more than 700...

    , Russell Square
    Russell Square
    Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. To the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row...

     train

External links

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