Four British Muslims on Wednesday admitted in court that they had been involved in an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to unleash a Mumbai-style atrocity in London.
The four were part of a larger group of nine British Muslims, between the ages of 19 and 29 years, who were arrested by the UK police on December 20, 2010. The nine men, two from London, three from Cardiff and four from Stoke-on-Trent, had been accused of planning to detonate bombs at the Houses of Parliament, the American embassy and the London Stock Exchange and target political and religious figures in the plot in the run-up to Christmas. The nine men were involved in the plot inspired by radical preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki.
Londoners Mohammed Chowdhury and Shah Rahman along with Cardiff-based brothers Gurukanth Desai and Abdul Miah pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.
Twenty-one-year-old Chowdhury from Tower Hamlets in London and 28-year-old Shah Rahman from Newham in London admitted in court on Wednesday that they had been preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.
Thirty-year-old Guruka-nth Desai and his younger brother Abdul Miah, 25, also admitted the same count. The four men are of Bangladeshi origin.
The remaining five men, who are of Pakistani origin, have pleaded guilty to other terrorism offences and all the nine will be sentenced next week.