London: A man shot dead by the Scotland Yard after he went on a stabbing frenzy on a busy high street in south London was a convicted Islamist terrorist, with family links to Sri Lanka, who was recently released from prison after serving half of his sentence period for preparation of acts of terrorism, police said Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said Sudesh Amman, a 20-year-old British national with extended family in Sri Lanka, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS).
In a statement in Arabic via its Amaq propaganda agency, the Islamic State claimed Monday responsibility for the London attack and said Sudesh was a ‘fighter’ with the group, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring firm which monitors jihadist activities.
Amman was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in December 2018 after being charged with 10 terror-related offences. He was aged 18 that time. He was released under licence last month. He was under surveillance.
“The suspect had been recently released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for Islamist-related terrorism offences. We are confident that this is an isolated incident that has been contained,” said Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi, Sunday night.
Police had been told of extremist material being posted on the social media app Telegram by an account called @strangertothisworld, which turned out to be of Amman.
He had used documents about making explosives, weaponry and carrying out terrorist attacks. Among them were manuals on bomb-making, knife-fighting and close combat. Reports at the time also said he had told his girlfriend she should murder her ‘kuffar’ (non-believer) parents.
Police found a notepad in his home, where he had listed his ‘life goals’. “Top of the list, above family activities, was dying a martyr and going to ‘Jannah’ – the afterlife,” Alexis Boon, head of the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command, said after Amman was jailed over a year ago.
Amman was wearing a hoax bomb vest Sunday as he was pursued by armed officers as part of a proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation before they shot him dead at the scene.
A man in his 40s, who suffered life-threatening injuries in the stabbing, is said to be out of danger and one woman in her 50s, who had non-life-threatening injuries, has since been discharged from hospital.
Another woman in her 20s who suffered minor injuries, believed to have been caused by broken glasses triggered from the discharge of the police firearm, continues to receive treatment at hospital, the Met Police said.
“Detectives from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command continue to carry out fast-time enquiries into the circumstances of the attack in Streatham High Road at approximately 1400 hours Sunday, February 2,” the Met Police said in a statement on Monday.
In a statement from Downing Street after an emergency meeting Sunday night with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, Prime Minister Boris Johnson once again pledged tougher sentencing measures for dangerous terrorists.
“We will announce further plans for fundamental changes to the system for dealing with those convicted of terrorism offences,” Johnson said.
Agencies