A foreign terrorist’s chilling plot to bomb Melbourne’s Queen Victoria market has been exposed, just days before the attack was intended to take place.
It was revealed that the anonymous jihadi mastermind was actively grooming a recruit to carry out the catastrophic attack, which would have seen a ‘sequence of bombs’ being planted at the market and detonated when it was at its busiest.
Over the course of five months, the man sent a series of encrypted texts and voice files instructing his recruit on such things as how to create a car bomb and where best to trigger it in order to kill as many ‘dirty unbelievers’ as possible, Herald Sun reports.
A foreign terrorist’s chilling plot to bomb Melbourne’s Queen Victoria market has been exposed – just days before the attack was intended to take place
‘Look out for such a target which should be easily accessible to you and there must be gathering of at least 100 persons,’ the terrorist mastermind told his recruit over an encrypted messaging service
‘Look out for such a target which should be easily accessible to you and there must be gathering of at least 100 persons,’ he said.
‘This should be a crowded place where people may gather in large number so that when you explode devices fitted in the vehicles, it may cause the maximum damage, God willing.’
As it turns out, his pseudo extremist recruit was in fact an undercover group of UK jihadi hunters, posing as a willing candidate in order to coax information from the man and ultimately foil his deadly plans.
That correspondence – which took place over the encrypted messaging service Telegram – has since been handed to the Australian Federal Police and to Victoria Police’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team.
As it turns out, his pseudo extremist recruit was in fact an undercover group of UK jihadi hunters, posing as a willing candidate in order to coax information and foil the deadly plans
Other conversations discussed the possibility of attacking ‘heathens’ at St Paul’s Cathedral, killing shoppers at Chadstone or even targetting government buildings such as the William St law courts precinct.
Eventually the cross-hairs landed on the Queen Victoria markets, with the man urging his recruit to carry out the attack on June 14, in the middle of Ramadan.
‘May God accept our prayers and fasting during this month. May God make Ramadan a month of victory for us. Amen,’ he said.
He also insisted that no Muslim be harmed in the attack.
The mastermind urged his recruit to carry out the attack on June 14, in the middle of Ramadan
A spokesperson for Victoria Police stated that ‘Our teams regularly receive information from various sources and carefully assess that information based on validity and risk.
‘These matters were assessed earlier this year in accordance with that process and it was determined that they pose no threat in Australia.’
It is believed that the terrorist recruiter is based somewhere overseas, potentially in Pakistan or Bangladesh, and is being assisted by a network of like-minded extremists.