Bangladeshi bomber jailed for 30 years in Britain
March 19th, 2011 - 5:58 pm ICT by IANSLondon, March 19 (IANS) A Bangladeshi national, working for British Airways, has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for plotting with an Al Qaeda terrorist to smuggle a bomb onto a trans-Atlantic aircraft.
Rajib Karim came to Britain from Bangladesh in 2006 in order to carry out attacks, the court said. He lived in the country for three years.
“Your motive in finding a job was as much to carry out attacks as to make a living,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Judge Calvert-Smith as telling Karim.
Karim was on the verge of getting a British passport that would have allowed him to travel abroad and launch attacks in an “act of treason”, the judge said, adding that it was “highly appropriate” that Karim should be deported at the end of his sentence.
Karim’s plans to attack an aircraft were discovered in encrypted messages stored on his computer.
He got in touch with Anwar al-Awlaki, a key figure of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, and replied with plans to attack the airline’s infrastructure or smuggle a bomb onto a plane.
Karim told al-Awlaki he had applied for cabin crew training, and claimed he can find out the possibilities of shipping a package to a US-bound plane.
He was privately educated in Bangladesh and moved to Britain to study electrical and micro-electronic systems at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
In Britain, he was influenced by the group Jamaat al-Muslimeen and after returning to Bangladesh at the end of his course he joined Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.
He returned to Britain in 2006 with his wife, who was born in Newcastle, to seek treatment for their baby son.
Once in Britain, he started work on a video for the JMB which would prove to the public and to Al Qaeda that they were a “force to be reckoned with”.
He eventually found a place on British Airways’ graduate trainee programme.
Karim pleaded guilty to producing and distributing the video, raising fund for terrorism and offering himself and encouraging others to volunteer for terrorist operations abroad.
- Bangladeshi BA worker jailed for 30 years for conspiring with Al Qaeda to blow up flight - Mar 19, 2011
- British Airways employee conspired with al-Awlaki to blow up US bound flight - Feb 02, 2011
- Al-Qaeda leader Al-Awlaki killed: Yemen - Sep 30, 2011
- Anwar al-Awlaki plotting attacks on UK - Mar 01, 2011
- Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki sentenced to ten years in prison - Jan 17, 2011
- Al Qaeda targets Christmas, plans to make toy bomb - Nov 07, 2010
- Yemen bomb went on two passenger jets: Qatar Airways (Lead) - Oct 31, 2010
- Al-Awlaki's death major blow to Al Qaeda: Obama - Oct 01, 2011
- Bangladeshi BA computer engineer convicted on terror charges - Mar 01, 2011
- Anwar al-Awlaki calls for more terror attacks on West in new video - Sep 30, 2010
- Yemen-based Al Awlaki may succeed Osama - May 05, 2011
- Yemen tribal leaders not playing ball with govt. in handing over Qaeda operatives - Nov 13, 2010
- Official cites terror threat to justify targeting Americans - Mar 06, 2012
- Yemen charges US-born radical cleric Al-Awlaki for first time - Nov 03, 2010
- Al Qaeda leaders killed in Yemen air strike - May 07, 2012
Tags: act of treason, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, baby son, britain london, british airways, british passport, cabin crew training, daily telegraph, electronic systems, encrypted messages, finding a job, graduate trainee, jmb, karim, london march, manchester institute, rajib, trainee programme, university of manchester, university of manchester institute of science and techn