Islamist terrorist who plotted to attack iconic shopping centre and nightclub with ‘dirty bomb’ is deported to Pakistan

One of the UK’s most dangerous terrorists who was jailed for life over a plot to bomb the Bluewater shopping centre has been deported to Pakistan.

Jawad Akbar, 23, plotted to blow up Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, bomb the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and set off a radioactive ‘dirty’ bomb.

The 2004 attacks would have caused huge damage and could have killed hundreds of innocent people.

Akbar, from Crawley, West Sussex, was sentenced to life in April 2007 after being found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions. 

He was given a minimum term of 17-and-a-half years.

In July 2022, the Parole Board deemed him too dangerous to be released. One of the main considerations was that the UK could not be sure that Akbar would be adequately supervised if he was deported.

Akbar’s minimum jail term ended in September 2021 and he should have been eligible for a second parole hearing sometime in 2023.

However, MailOnline has discovered this did not happen and he was deported to Pakistan in the last year. 

Pakistani national Jawad Akbar plotted to blow up Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre 

Entrance to the Bluewater shopping centre (pictured) 

As well as targeting the shopping centre, he also plotted to bomb the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and set off a radioactive ‘dirty’ bomb

The Home Office confirmed that Akbar, now 41, was deported.

It is believed this went ahead under a joint ‘returns agreement’ scheme signed in 2019 by the Conservative government and Pakistan.

The then Home Secretary Priti Patel said the legislation would be used to return foreign criminals and immigration offenders from the UK to Pakistan.

She said at the time: ‘I make no apology for removing dangerous foreign criminals and immigration offenders who have no right to remain in the UK. 

‘The British public have quite rightly had enough of people abusing our laws and gaming the system so we can’t remove them.’

The Home Office refuses to comment on individual cases and declined to elaborate on the reasons why the committed terrorist was allowed to return to Pakistan, where he was born.

In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.’

The Home Office had originally tried to deport him to Italy, where his father has citizenship.

Anthony Garcia (pictured) was also a member of the terror cell 

Waheed Mahmood, of Crawley, West Sussex, was freed from prison in September

Anthony Garcia (left) and gang member Omar Khyam at the Avari Hotel, Lahore, Pakistan in 2003

It is believed the family first moved to Italy after leaving Pakistan.

Akbar was part of a five strong British born or British resident gang of Pakistani heritage linked to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

Waheed Mahmood, 35, Omar Khyam, 25, Anthony Garcia, 24, Salahuddin Amin, 32, were the other defendants in the 2006 trial. All five were handed life sentences.

During the trial it was revealed the gang were poised to attack the shopping centre with a massive device, made for just £100 containing ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder.

The home-made bomb was made from household ingredients, inspired by the Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh, who killed 168 people with an almost identical device in 1995.

At the time, judge Sir Michael Astill QC, said: ‘All of you were determined to cause indiscriminate death, injury and suffering of unsuspecting and innocent members of the community.’

‘This was demonstrated by the discussions that took place about where improvised devices could be placed, such as the Bluewater retail complex and the Ministry of Sound.

‘These are examples of sites where numerous members of the public congregated and became vulnerable targets.

‘They demonstrate the scale of horror, which you were prepared to inflict and would have inflicted but for the intervention of the security services and the police.’

Waheed Mahmood and Anthony Garcia were freed on parole in 2024. Salahuddin Amin had a parole request turned down in February 2024.

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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk