An accomplice and terrorist cell leader of Usman Khan, who carried out the Fishmongers Hall terror attack near London Bridge in the UK's capital city, was allowed to walk free for five months behind the authorities' back, The Mirror reported.
Under the rules of his probation, Shahjahan was allowed to visit his wife, but he should have alerted the authorities.
According to the report, Shahjahan made up to 20 secret visits to see his wife during this time and for five months after the November 2019 incident.
Shahjahan was automatically released on a conditional basis in 2019, just months before Khan, who was released in 2018 despite a prison psychologist's assessment that he reportedly posed a "very high risk of serious harm" to the public.
And the majority of the trips that occurred between October 2019 and April 2020 reportedly took place after Khan's murderous attack on London Bridge, during which time Shahjahan was not investigated.
Shahjahan was wearing a GPS ankle-tracking device, just like Khan did when he carried out the London Bridge attack. Khan had been allowed to live barely three miles away from his old gang member Shahjahan and 17 miles away from his previous gang member Nazam Hussein, who was also detained following the incident for violating license terms.
In 2020, he was returned to prison, and his appeal was denied by the Parole Board.
As the former Head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Chris Phillips, told the outlet, "If you’re going to let these people out, you’re making a rod for your own back."
"We will have terror attacks by people who have been in prison. You can’t expect police to have them under 24/7 guard. The only place they get that is prison," he is quoted in the report as saying. "They are released on the hope – and it’s only fingers crossed – that they are not going to do something stupid again."
Shahjahan was dubbed "ameer," meaning "leader," and a significant extremist recruiter, according to the Woolwich Crown Court ruling in 2012.
Back then, a judge ruled that Shahjahan, Khan, and their key sidekick Nazam Hussain posed "such a significant risk" to the public that they could not be "adequately protected" if they were handled on a community license.
Nevertheless, their indefinite prison sentences were reversed by the Court of Appeal, clearing the path for their release.
On November 29, 2019, 28-year-old Khan fatally stabbed two people and injured three others while attending a prisoner rehabilitation course near London Bridge. A year prior to the attack, Khan was released on probation as he was deemed "wrongly characterized" as more dangerous than thought.
