Days before attack, knife trio plotting at their jihadi gym
BRITISH police raided a gym yesterday after CCTV revealed the three London Bridge terrorists met there days before last Saturday’s attack.
Investigators believe the Ummah Fitness Centre, in Barking, east London, may have been used by the trio as an impromptu headquarters.
The ringleader, 27-year-old Khuram Butt, is suspected of running mixed martial arts classes in an attempt to groom teenagers for terror. The gym is also at the centre of claims it is linked to a suspected extremist who helped train one of the July 7 bombers, something its managers fiercely deny.
Sajeel Shahid, 41, who is accused of running weapons training camps in Pakistan, is said to have contributed to the business.
The CCTV footage shows Butt meeting Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, five days before they killed eight people and left dozens injured.
The camera, linked to an adjacent fast food shop, captures Redouane leaving his mobile phone hidden under a builder’s sack, presumably to prevent surveillance.
He disappears off-camera for ten minutes with Butt and Zaghba, who were both in traditional Islamic dress, before they return then hug and shake hands.
Butt then reappears inside the gym, which was open until 3am during Ramadan with evening prayers being said. The clandestine gym meeting is further evidence of how the terrorists were united by an obsession with fitness. Butt and Redouane regularly attended men-only swimming sessions together and Zaghba gave classes at a children’s gymnastics club.
Counter-terrorist police are building a detailed picture of the activities of the three men before last Saturday night’s massacre.
They are examining their movements and communications, as well as a mass of forensic evidence, to see whether they had help.
Sixteen suspects have been arrested, including three men held during raids in the early hours of yesterday.
One 29-year-old suspect was dragged from a house in Ilford by armed police and two others, aged 33 and 27, were arrested in the street in a dramatic ambush. Two are being held under terrorism laws and the other on suspicion of drugs and firearms offences.
Ilford and nearby Barking, where 12 were arrested on Sunday, have become the focus of the police inquiry. Neighbours said police spent more than an hour at the gym, which is in a small parade of shops. They were seen leaving with computer equipment and specialists searched under parked vehicles. According to a gym user, Butt looked worried in recent weeks. The 20-year-old said: ‘I met him three weeks ago. He spoke only with his guys, people who came in robes. When I last saw him, he looked concerned.’
The previous evening, in a road behind the gym, an Asian man had been led away from a terraced house by armed police. He is believed to be linked to the business. A neighbour said: ‘I looked out and saw loads of armed police balaclava’d up. There were about ten of them and loads of unmarked cars arriving.’ Butt is suspected of working as an attendant at the gym. Police are investigating whether he was influenced by Shahid who was once named by an FBI supergrass as a leading Al Qaeda trainer.