London Bridge attacker named as Khuram Butt
Sources say the terrorist, a son of Pakistani immigrants and keen Arsenal fan, had been excluded from mosques in east London
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Khuram Butt featured in a Channel 4 documentary
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Monday 5 June 2017 13.09 EDTLast modified on Monday 5 June 2017 13.17 EDT
Khuram Butt, one of the three jihadi attackers who killed seven people in London on Saturday, was a supporter of the banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun who only last month was spotted urging people in east
London not to participate in the general election.
The 27-year old was described by locals in his neighbourhood of Barking, east London, as the son of parents from Jhelum, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province, but he is believed to have been brought up in Britain, become a keen supporter of Arsenal football club, whose shirt he wore during the attack, and spoke with a London accent. It is not clear if he was born in the UK or abroad.
Butt went by the name Abu Zaitun and was known widely as Abs by friends at the gymnasium where he trained in weightlifting and at the two mosques where he worshipped. He had two young children, a son aged around three and a recently born baby, with a woman described locally as his wife. He reportedly had jobs on the London transport network and in a fast food restaurant and lived a couple of miles from his mother in Plaistow.
But in recent years his fundamentalist approach to religion repeatedly caused concern among people who knew him. He associated with al-Muhajiroun the banned extremist group whose leader Anjem Choudary has been linked to the recruitment of more than 100 British terrorism suspects.
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Khuram Butt in The Jihadis Next Door. Photograph: Channel 4
Community sources in east London active in working against al-Muhajiroun and the groups that succeeded it, said Butt was excluded from the East London mosque over concerns about his activities. One source at the mosque, on Whitechapel Road, said that after the 2017 general election was called he was seen handing out flyers telling Muslims they should not vote or participate in the democratic process. In 2015 he was asked not to enter the mosque having tried to urge worshippers inside the building not to vote.
He was also forcibly ejected from a Barking mosque, Jabir bin Zayd, after he repeatedly interrupted the imam shouting “only God is in charge” and refusing to stop. It is believed he was also urging people not to vote at that mosque ahead of the 2015 poll.
Butt also featured in a Channel 4 documentary about British jihadis broadcast last year, which showed he was involved in an altercation with police after a black flag was unfurled in Regent’s Park in London. The programme also featured Siddhartha Dhar, who changed his named to Abu Rumaysah after converting to
Islam and later travelled to Syria to join Islamic State. Dhar, 33, fled Britain in 2014 after being arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism and being a member of al-Muhajiroun.
Dhar is suspected of becoming a masked public “executioner” for Isis in Syria, being filmed presiding over a number of murders following the death of fellow Briton Mohammed Emwazi, the man dubbed Jihadi John.
Also in the group filmed by Channel 4 was extremist preacher Abu Haleema. Abu Haleema had contact with a teenage jihadi who wanted to carry out a beheading on Anzac Day in Australia. Butt also appeared alongside Dhar in footage at a demonstration outside Paddington police station during which Choudary’s acolytes clashed with the far right group Britain First.
To some neighbours in Barking, such as Ken Chigbo, 26, Butt seemed “a sociable, friendly guy”. Butt had invited Chigbo to a barbecue recently. It was “friendly, there was a good vibe”, Chigbo recalled. He also said he occasionally played football or table tennis with Butt outside the flats.
Another neighbour, Regina Khan, said Butt spent a lot of time with boys and teenagers in the area. “He was always hanging out with the kids and teenagers – just the boys, never the girls – talking with them and playing football. That always worries me a bit to be honest.”
Khan was not invited to the barbecue and said it was a “no woman” affair. “He invited the boys and teenagers and a few of the men but not the women,” she said.
But another neighbour who who lived in the same Elizabeth Fry apartments building in Barking as Butt, reported him him to the police in 2015 after she feared he was trying to radicalise children in a local park.
Erica Gasparri, a mother of three who lives in the same complex, said she went to the park to confront him after her son he came home and said: “Mummy, I want to be a Muslim.”
She rushed to the park and said that he was there with two people she had not seen before in the tight-knit community. She described the other two as a Pakistani man and a black man.
“He said, ‘I’m ready to do whatever I need to do in the name of Allah. I am ready in the name of Allah what needs to be done including killing my own mother,’” Gasparri said. “I don’t know how fast I from the park to Barking police. I took four photographs of him and gave them to the police. They rang Scotland Yard when I was there and said the information had been passed on to Scotland Yard. They were very concerned.
“They told me to delete the photos for my own safety which I did but then I heard nothing. That was two years ago. No one came to me. If they did, this could have been prevented and lives could have been saved,” she said.
A friend of the attacker told the BBC’s Asian Network on Sunday that he also raised the alarm because Butt used to watch clips of the American hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril.
“I phoned the anti-terror hotline,” the unnamed man said. “I spoke to the gentleman. I told him about our conversation and why I think he was radicalised.”
Butt did not like to socialise with women and his wife normally wore a full-face veil, neighbours said.
They also reported an increase in comings and goings of men in traditional religious robes and headgear at Butt’s home in recent months.
A neighbour of one of the suspected attackers said he saw the rental van used in the attack outside the Elizabeth Fry block on Friday – and again on Saturday afternoon.
“I saw him with the van on Friday,” said Michael Mimbo, 25, who lived in a neighbouring block to the attacker’s flat and had known him for three years. “He had parked it right outside the flats and it was blocking the road. Cars couldn’t get past and there was a bit of aggro.”
Mimbo said several neighbours had seen it being driven at speed the wrong way up a one-way street outside the flats on Saturday afternoon.
“There are lots of kids play round here so people were pretty cross,” he said.
It was a change of behaviour from Butt, a man who had previously seemed calm.
“On FA Cup final day we were both excited and talking about it,” said Mimbo. “I remember I said I wanted Wenger out and he said he wanted him to remain. And he was joyous when Arsenal won ... he was a calm and kind guy. It’s unbelievable what’s happened.”
What Butt did next is now the subject of a major counter-terrorism investigation.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-london-bridge-attacks-unfolded-video-report
Khuram Butt: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Published 1:14 pm EDT, June 5, 2017 Updated 1:32 pm EDT, June 5, 2017
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A screenshot from the Channel 4 documentary by Jamie Roberts.
Khuram Butt, identified as one of the gang of terrorists who staged coordinated attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market, appeared in a documentary on British Jihadis that showed him praying with an Islamic flag in a park.
The 27-year-old terrorist known as “Abz,” who was photographed lying dead in the street while wearing hoax explosives, is the son of Pakistani asylum seekers and was allegedly associated with notorious YouTube and street preachers. The terrorist was reported to police two years ago for trying to brainwash local children to become Muslims in an English park.
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The three terrorists – who were shot dead by police – staged both a vehicle and a knife attack in the latest horror to hit England. The terrorists shouted, “This is for Allah” as they randomly slashed people’s faces and throats,
according to Fox News.
They rammed a van into people walking on the landmark London Bridge and then randomly stabbed and slashed at people in a nearby cafe in Borough Market. The London Ambulance Service
told the Guardian that at least 48 people were transported to six hospitals across London, and more people were treated at the scene for less serious injuries. At least seven people
were reportedly killed in the twin attacks. Twenty-one people remained in critical condition the day after the attacks.
The Metropolitan police declared the assaults a terrorist attack, tweeting, “At 0025hrs 4/6/17 the incidents at #LondonBridge & #BoroughMarket were declared as terrorist incidents.” Prime Minister Theresa May expressed concern that the attack was a copycat of other terrorist incidents, and vowed, “Enough is enough.”
UK Express
obtained exclusive video of the terrorists calmly walking through the market before they knifed people. However, it was not the first time this suspect ended up on video.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Khuram Butt Was Featured in a Documentary That Showed Him in a Confrontation With Police After Praying Before an Islamic Flag in a Park
The documentary on British Jihadis aired on Channel 4 in Britain and was filmed by a man named Jamie Roberts. He spent years following some of the most notorious Islamic street preachers in England.
One London Bridge terrorists, Khuram Butt, makes a brief appearance in the documentary, which focuses on three preachers who are well known to police and in England. In the scene in which the terrorist is featured, a man named Mohammed Shamsuddin is leading the group.
The men display a black Islamic flag, which is similar to one used by ISIS, and bow down before it in the English park. At the end of the prayer session, a police officer confronts the group, and they are briefly detained. The officer says a member of the public had contacted authorities because the men were spotted with something resembling an ISIS flag in the park. A verbal debate ensues.
According to UK Daily Mail, the 27-year-old London Bridge terrorist was a “Muslim extremist” who “appeared in a TV documentary last year about British jihadis” and who was “involved in a filmed altercation with police after an Islamic State flag was unfurled in a park.”
Daily Mail added, “He was caught on camera alongside two notorious preachers who were well known to police and intelligence officials because of their extremist views… a friend of the Watford-born suspect had reported him to the anti-terror hotline after he became radicalised by watching extremist videos on YouTube.”
According to a 2016 Guardian article on the documentary, Shamsuddin has ties to some of the most notorious Islamic preachers in Great Britain, a topic the documentary discusses. “The Jihadis Next Door also focuses on an extremist preacher called Abu Haleema and his friend Mohammed Shamsuddin. Haleema has links to a teen jihadi who wanted to carry out a beheading on Anzac Day in Australia, while Shamsuddin was an associate of Islamic cleric Anjem Choudary and joined a radical group after meeting hate preacher Omar Bakri, also known at the Tottenham Ayatollah,”
reports the Guardian.
The documentary opens with an associate of Shamsuddin, the notorious
Siddhartha Dhar, also known as Abu Rumaysah, a former bouncy castle salesman from London and Muslim convert who is believed to have fled to Syria and was accused of being the “new Jihadi John” who appeared in a gruesome ISIS video.
The men pray before an Islamic flag in this screenshot from Jamie Roberts’ documentary.
The degree to which Butt was tied to or influenced by these men is not known, but the documentary does show him praying with the group in the park. There is no indication that any of the men listed above had anything to do with the London Bridge attacks, however.
In the documentary, the street preachers made it very clear what their goal is: They speak openly about desiring sharia law in Great Britain, and two of them express confidence that the Islamic flag will one day fly over 10 Downing Street, the address of the British prime minister.
A scene from the Roberts documentary.
“This is a war against Islam and Muslims, the struggle must continue… one day the black flag of Islam will be over 10 downing street, Allahu Akbar,” Shamsuddin says in one scene. One of the preachers also talks about what life would be like under sharia law in England: Women would have to be fully covered, adulterers would be stoned in open public parks, homosexuality would be severely punished, and gambling and alcohol would be banned.
The preachers and their followers repeatedly take to street corners in England to preach their version of Islam. One interesting aspect of the documentary is that the men are repeatedly confronted by other Muslims, who yell at them, and accuse them of giving Islam a bad name. “This is ISIS, ISIS, this is what you see on television,” says one agitated opponent on the street. “You’re talking rubbish,” says another.
You can watch the documentary above via YouTube.
In contrast to the intense scenes shown in the documentary, neighbors of the man described him in tranquil terms.
UK Daily Mail reported that the London Bridge terrorist discussed by neighbors is the same man in the documentary.
One neighbor described the man as “affable” and expressed shock at hearing that the man, who was a fixture in the neighborhood with young children, could be involved in the attacks,
according to Sky News.
“Yes, he has a family. He’s got family. He’s always been pleasant to our family…I don’t understand how it could be him,” the neighbor said, adding that the man had helped with community groups on homelessness and worked at a gym. “He’s lived here for years.” Other neighbors described the terrorist as someone who frequently changed his appearance, liked to play table tennis, and held doors open for elderly people.
Butt was from Barking.
Police made 12 arrests at a Barking flat, but they haven’t yet said how they believe those people were linked to the attacks. The apartment building is where one of the three terrorists lived, according to news reports.
Another man said the suspects asked him about his moving van recently.
The coordinated attacks started when a van sped into pedestrians on London Bridge,
reported NBC News. The incident unfolded at about 10:08 p.m. on June 3, as Londoners were enjoying a Saturday evening near London Bridge.
The van was traveling abut 50 miles per hour when it rammed into people,
according to BBC.
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BBC reporter Holly Jones, who witnessed the attack on the bridge, told the network of the van’s driver, “He swerved right round me and then hit about five or six people. He hit about two people in front of me and then three behind.”
Police said three terrorists were killed in the attacks. Metropolitan police
released a statement that described the attacks unfolding this way:
“At 22:08hrs yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge. The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market. The suspects then left the vehicle and a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge. He received serious but not life-threatening injuries. His family has been informed.”
2. Butt Was Kicked Out of a Mosque & the Terrorists Referred to Themselves as Sheiks
Police officers and members of the emergency services attend to a person injured in an apparent terror attack on London Bridge in central London on June 3, 2017. (Getty)
Khuram Butt was thrown out of his mosque “after he interrupted a sermon to say that voting in the general election was ‘un-Islamic,'”
accoridng to The Independent.
The manager of the mosque told The Independent, “He got very angry. I called him aside and said, please calm down. He refused, so I removed him. Thank God he followed me. When we got outside the room, he said you don’t have any authority over me, only God has authority because this is a house of God. I said that might be true, but I am in charge.”
Neighbors said the men called themselves sheiks and “spiritual Muslims,” with one being seen in long robes, The Independent reported.
In the London Bridge attacks, armed police rushed to the scene, and gunshots broke out. “I hear maybe six to eight gunshots and screams unlike I’ve ever heard before. People running — I’ve never ran so fast in my life,” Joe Dillon, an American student at Kings College,
told MSNBC. “I ran and I hid.”
Debris is strewn outside a cafe near London Bridge on June 4, 2017 in London, England. Police responded to what they are calling terrorist attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market where at least 20 people were injured and one person was killed. (Getty)
One witness described the ensuing pandemonium to The Guardian, saying, “I was in the back of the pub. A wave of about 30 people ran in and tried to get into the cellar or cupboard. Then there were shots outside. They didn’t seem real – like a kid letting off firecrackers. We saw police lights and everyone got down under a table. People turned tables over.”
Other witnesses described throwing bottles and other objects at the terrorists to try to stop them.
BBC reported that about four people were stabbed by three attackers. Police continued, “Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes.”
3. He Worked in a KFC & Was the Son of Pakistani Asylum Seekers
Police officers clear the area near Borough market at London Bridge on June 3, 2017 in London, England. Police have responded to reports of a van hitting pedestrians on London Bridge in central London. (Getty)
According to the UK Telegraph, the 27-year-old suspect, Khuram Butt, had a wife through an arranged marriage and two children.
“The attacker’s parents were reported to be asylum seekers from Pakistan. His father is said to also live in east London, but his mother is dead. The attacker had worked at a branch of the fast food chain KFC before leaving two years ago for a job on the London Underground,” reported the Telegraph.
The Daily Mail also reported that the terrorist worked for Transport for London, which “is responsible for the Tube and buses.”
The Telegraph reported that the man “had been radicalised while watching YouTube videos of the infamous American hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril,” and two people who knew him also contacted police to report his extremist views.
According to BBC, Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, released a statement that said, in part: “I am appalled and angered by the terrorist attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market, in my home city. These acts of violence were truly shocking and I condemn them in the strongest terms. Muslims everywhere are outraged and disgusted at these cowards who once again have destroyed the lives of our fellow Britons.”
4. He Was Accused Two Years Ago of Trying to Brainwash Children to Become Muslim in a Park
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One woman told the Telegraph that the Butt was brainwashing children in a local park two years ago, and one of her children came home and said, “Mummy I want to become a Muslim.”
According to the Guardian, the woman confronted the man in the park, and he said, “I’m ready to do whatever I need to do in the name of Allah. I am ready in the name of Allah to do what needs to be done, including killing my own mother.” She told police and gave them photographs, but nothing happened. The incident occurred two years before the terrorist attack, the Guardian reported.
Photos and videos emerged showing the chaos at the London Bridge and Borough Market scene, including people walking down the street with their hands in the air, and police bursting into taverns to tell people to get out.
One man snapped a photo of a dead terrorist lying on the ground with canisters around his chest that police said were hoax explosives. The Daily Mail interviewed a man who said this was the same London Bridge terrorist as the one in the documentary because the neighbor recognized the Arsenal shirt he was wearing earlier in the day.
Butt seemed “euphoric” and asked the man about the van he was using to move, reported Daily Mail.
London’s mayor condemned the attacks, saying,
according to BBC: “We don’t yet know the full details, but this was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
According to the Mirror, the knife-wielding terrorists slashed people’s faces and throats, witnesses said.
5. He Wouldn’t Interact With Women & Was Planning to go to Syria
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 24: Thirteen year old Iqra Saied, who attended the Ariana Grande concert
looks at floral tributes and messages as the working day begins on May 24, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
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Flowers to mourn the Manchester bombing victims. (Getty)
Butt’s neighbor
told the Daily Mail the man “didn’t interact with women in the area because of his views. He would happily talk to men but would ignore females. I only ever saw his wife if he was with her and she wore the full veil – I don’t think I ever saw her eyes.”
A relative of the terrorist’s wife told the Daily Mail, “In 2015, I heard that he tried to go to Syria saying he was going for jihad. But the family rallied around and as his wife was pregnant they managed to stop him.”
The 2005 London bombing killed 52 people. However, the London Bridge attack is the third since March 2017. First, a terrorist, Khalid Masood, drove into a crowd of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and tried to storm UK Parliament.
Then, Salman Abedi blew himself up in a crowd of people leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Manchester and also at London Bridge and Borough Market.
Six people died in the Westminster Bridge attack, and 22 perished in the Manchester bombing. ISIS has also claimed responsibility for the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks.
Jessica McBride is a Heavy contributor. She was a crime, government, and breaking news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reporter for the Waukesha Freeman newspaper. Her award-winning work has appeared in numerous magazine, newspaper, and online publications. She has also appeared as a crime reporter on Investigation Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Oxygen Channel. She can be reached by email at
jessica.mcbride@heavy.com.
June 5, 2017 1:32 pm
http://heavy.com/news/2017/06/khura...ok-documentary-jihadi-next-door-abu-rumaysah/
yeh to Pakistani nikala 
