News Desk |
A British man Umar Haque 25, was convicted by British courts for allegedly training an army’ of children to commit ISIS-style terror attacks across Britain’s capital. Umar Haque radicalized students to commit attacks on British communities and businesses said Metropolitan Police in a statement.
Metropolitan Police counterterrorism commander Dean Haydon said “his aim was to create an army of children” to carry out attacks at “multiple sites using multiple weapons.”
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“Haque was a dangerous man who was inspired by attacks in Europe and Westminster. He wanted to orchestrate numerous attacks at once, using guns, knives, bombs and large cars to kill innocent people,” said Dean Haydon.
“We recovered a number of exercise books from his home and it was evident from his notes that his plan was a long-term one.”
“He intended to execute his plan years later, by which time he anticipated he would have trained and acquired an army of soldiers, including children.
Umar Haque was also accused of showing children ‘terror videos’ of ISIS beheading pupil and made them play extremist terrorists, stabbing police officers.
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He attempted to radicalize 55 children aged between 11 to 14 years. Children during investigations revealed to police officers that they were shown videos. They told them that Haque threatened of severe consequences if they told someone about this.
“They told police how Haque made them role-play terrorists and police officers, with the children acting as terrorists being made to stab the ‘police officers’ to death.”
“The children were paralyzed by fear of Haque, who they understood to have connections to terrorists and who essentially told them that a violent fate would befall them if they told anyone what he was doing. They were too afraid to confide in anyone,” he added.
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According to the Prosecutor Umar Haque “was fascinated by the warped and extreme ideology” of IS. He was plotting to commit multiple attacks on targets, including Big Ben, Heathrow Airport, banks and shopping centers in later years.
Haque was charged with four offenses including plotting terrorist attacks, obtaining information for the terrorist attacks and disseminating a terrorist document.