Manchester – A woman has been charged in the northern English city of Manchester of building bombs with the intention of using them against Jewish targets in the city. The trial of Shasta Khan, a British-born hairdresser of Pakistani descent, opened Wednesday morning in the Crown Court of Manchester. Her husband Mohammed Sajid Khan has already pleaded guilty. The couple were arrested under the Terrorism Act last August.
The court was told by the prosecution how the couple had been preparing to carry out a terror attack against a Jewish target in the Prestwich area, not far from their home in the town of Oldham, to the north of Manchester. Prestwich is part of an area with a large, mainly Orthodox Jewish population, Manchester is the second-largest Jewish community in Britain, after London, with over 50,000 Jews.
According to the prosecution, the couple had learned how to build a home-made bomb on their own, without assistance from any organization, but they had become radicalized by material they read on the internet, including from Al-Qaida’s online magazine, Inspire, where they also may have found instructions on bomb manufacturing. The chemicals they were using to build the bomb were easily available from local shops. The couple was arrested before they finished making the bomb and it is not clear if they had already selected their target. In the questioning, the husband confessed and has plead guilty, while Shast, 38, is still claiming her innocence. The prosecutor called the case one of “Jihad at home.”
Armed British police officers guard Tower Bridge over the river Thames in central London.
The bombing plot was uncovered by coincidence following a violent altercation between Mohammed Sajid Khan and his father-in-law, in which police were called. The wife’s family then accused him of being a terrorist, following which the couple were arrested and indicted under the Terrorism Act of four charges of planning and preparing a terror attack.
