Revealed: Student days of Sri Lanka bomb plotter at UK university Robert Mendick, Bill Gardner Ben Farmer, in Colombo
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/24/abdul-lathief-jameel-mohamed-sri-lanka-suicide-bomber/
One of the masterminds behind the Sri Lanka suicide bombings lived in London and spent a year at Kingston University on an aerospace engineering course, The Telegraph can disclose.
The Islamic State terrorist, named today as Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, spent a year at the university in south west London in the academic year 2006 to 2007, according to well-placed sources, before travelling to Melbourne in Australia for a postgraduate course.
Intelligence agents are now combing through connections made in the UK to examine whether he could have been radicalised in this country – and whether he could have been in contact with jihadists at that time.
Intelligence officers will also be looking at the travel plans of two wealthy brothers, who blew themselves up at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand Hotels, killing scores of tourists including a number of Britons. One of the brothers Inshaf Ahamed Ibrahim, 33, flew frequently around the world, including trips to the UK, according to a source at his family-owned spice trading company where he was the export director.
In 2015, David Cameron, when prime minister, ‘named and shamed’ Kingston among four universities which he alleged had hosted the most events with extremist speakers. The naming of Kingston followed a study by the Government’s newly established Extremism Analysis Unit.
It is not clear when Jameel Mohamed took up the cause of violent extremism, pledging allegiance to Islamic State in a martyr video made public in the days after the Sri Lankan attacks.
A source said: “We are looking at the timings of his stay in the UK and the significance of any travel here. We are looking at all his links.”
Jameel Mohamed is thought to have died in the blast at the Tropical Inn in Dehiwala, a suburb in Colombo, in a second wave of suicide bombings on Easter Sunday. Two people were killed when he detonated the bomb at the guesthouse near the zoo, five hours after the first wave.
The former Kingston University student’s expertise in aerospace and mechanical engineering will inevitably raise questions over whether he could have been the chief bomb-maker involved in the operation. It may also explain why he was not involved in the first wave of attacks and that he acted after the net began closing in.
The claim was vehemently contested by Kingston, which insisted that it was ‘highly unlikely’ students were being radicalised. Downing Street was challenged to produce the evidence by Kingston, which insisted it had been wrongly singled out. Last night Kingston declined to comment on Jameel Mohamed’s time at the university.
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