UK cops search homes after terror stabbing
LONDON : British police were searching two homes yesterday after shooting dead a convicted terrorist who knifed two people in London.
Sudesh Amman, 20, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was shot on a busy road in south London on Sunday after what police said was an "Islamist-related" incident.
Amman was recently given early release from prison after serving part of his sentence for terror offences.
Counter-terror officers were conducting searches at one address in south London and one in Bishop's Stortford, north of the capital near London Stansted Airport.
Amman was jailed for three years and four months in December 2018 for 13 separate offences. He had been arrested in London in May 2018 on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
As part of what police said was a "proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation", armed officers were following him on foot after his release.
Sunday's incident in the south London suburb of Streatham came just over two months after a similar incident, when armed police shot dead a convicted terrorist on early release near London Bridge in the heart of the city.
He had stabbed to death two people attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday said the government would announce fundamental changes in dealing with people convicted of terrorism offences.
"Those measures will build upon the actions we have already put in place," said Home Secretary Priti Patel. She said there would be legislation to end the early release from prison of terrorism offenders.
"It is right that these individuals are kept behind bars," Ms Patel said.
Mr Johnson said that since that attack, the government had "moved quickly to introduce a package of measures to strengthen every element of our response to terrorism - including longer prison sentences and more money for the police".
Mr Ian Acheson, who carried out a review of the management of Islamist extremists in jail, said the prison service did not have the appetite or aptitude to manage terrorist offenders.
"We may need to accept there are certain people who are so dangerous they must be kept in prison indefinitely," he told BBC radio.
RELEASE
Mr Mark Rowley, who was Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer when Amman was arrested, said dozens of other people convicted of terrorism offences were due to be released soon.
Amman was 17 and living at home with his mother and younger siblings when he first began committing terrorism offences, according to the authorities.
Police became aware of his activities in April 2018 and he was arrested by armed officers in a north London street a month later.
Before his arrest Amman posted a picture of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syria in October, and told his brother that "the Islamic State is here to stay".
He also encouraged his girlfriend to behead her parents. - AFP, REUTERS
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