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‘Meet wives and decorate main palace’: Jihadi wrote down plans for life in heaven after planned terror attack

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury pinned list on bedroom door while planning new terror attacks after being freed from prison

Lizzie Dearden
Security Correspondent
Thursday 09 July 2020 21:22 BST
Statement after man convicted of planning terror attack in London just over a year being cleared of sword attack outside Buckingham Palace

A jihadi who has been jailed for planning terror attacks wrote down plans for when he arrived in heaven as a martyr – including meeting wives and decorating his “main palace”.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury pinned to-do lists for the afterlife to his bedroom door while plotting an attack on potential targets that included a gay pride parade and Madame Tussauds.

The chicken-shop worker had slashed police officers with a sword outside Buckingham Palace in August 2017, but was acquitted of a terror offence at a retrial after claiming he was depressed and wanted to be shot dead.

After his release from prison he mounted new plots, and revealed his plans to undercover officers who posed as fellow jihadis in Luton.

On Thursday, he was jailed for life with a minimum prison term of 25 years for preparing acts of terrorism.

When police raided his family home, they found training swords and a knife in Chowdhury’s bedroom, alongside documents outlining his plans.

One handwritten list stuck on the back of the door was entitled “plans for Jannah”, meaning paradise.

Number one on the list was “tour entire property” and “choose main palace”.

Chowdhury, who had spoken to his sister and undercover police of his struggle to meet a girlfriend, named his second priority as “meet all wives and name and choose main two”.

He was then to “decorate main palace”, meet family and friends, feast repeatedly, go to the market, “spend time with wives” and embark on quests. Meeting Allah did not make the list until point number seven.

When asked about the document in court, Chowdhury claimed that he created it while being held in prison on remand for the Buckingham Palace attack.

During that period, he met other terrorists including the Parsons Green bomber and drew graphic cartoons of a police officer being murdered outside Number 10 Downing Street and 9/11.

Other notes on Chowdhury’s bedroom wall called on Allah to grant him “the best of shahada”, meaning martyrdom.

In a bugged conversation in his car last April, he had told a friend that he wanted to kill soldiers or police officers in the Buckingham Palace attack.

“It’s instant paradise,” Chowdhury said. “You can do all the prayers and fasting you want … Go out and fight and die in his cause, you go straight to Jannah.”

An Instagram video posted by Mohiussunnath Chowdhury showing a replica airsoft Glock pistol

The court heard that he used a book co-written by the English Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson and YouTube videos by anti-Muslim activists to claim violent jihad was mandated by the Quran.

Chowdhury also viewed videos by Islamist preachers Anwar al-Awlaki and Sheikh Faisal, as well as Isis propaganda, while drawing up his plans.

Days before his arrest in July 2019, he told his sister that he was going to do “another attack”, adding: “I’m serious, bro, it’s about time now.”

Chowdhury denied preparing an act of terrorism, claiming he had made the claims for attention as “jihad banter”, and that the jihad he sought was “in the end times” rather than an attack.

But the jury heard how he repeatedly praised other terror attacks and claimed to be radicalising children who came into the peri-peri chicken shop where he worked in Luton.

In the months after being acquitted over the Buckingham Palace attack, he engaged in physical training, by acquiring wooden swords, practising stabbing techniques, enrolling on a shooting training course and obtaining a replica pistol while seeking a live firearm and ammunition.

Chowdhury claimed he had been pressured by undercover police officers, but a jury rejected his explanation and found him guilty of preparing acts of terrorism, disseminating a terrorist publication and possessing terrorist information.

His sister, Sheha Chowdhury, was convicted of one count of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism and cleared of another count of the same charge.

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