LONDON: The London Bridge attackers wore fake suicide belts to create “maximum fear” as they carried out their rampage, police said Sunday.
The Metropolitan Police released photographs of the blood-splattered belts, which were made from plastic water bottles wrapped in duct tape.
Attackers Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba wore the belts when they mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge then stabbed people in nearby Borough Market on June 3. They killed eight people before being shot dead by police.
Police Commander Dean Haydon said the attackers may have worn the belts because they planned to take hostages, “or it might be that they saw it as protection from being shot themselves.”
Geoff Ho, a Sunday Express journalist who was stabbed and injured in the attack, described in the newspaper how he tried to stop the attackers entering a bar packed with people. Ho said “their eyes were full of rage,” and he feared they were about to blow themselves up.
“I couldn’t just attack,” he wrote. “If I charged at them, maybe I could take out one or two. But one of those animals could detonate and kill us all.”
Ho was stabbed in the throat by Butt. He credited his martial arts training with being able to fight off the attack enough to avoid being killed.
Police are still appealing for witnesses as they piece together details of the attack.
They say the attackers may have planned even worse carnage. Butt tried to rent a 7.5-ton box truck, but his payment was declined and he rented a smaller van instead.
Police found petrol bombs and blowtorches in the van, which crashed on the bridge.
Police are questioning six men over suspected links to the attackers, Pakistani-born British citizen Butt, Moroccan Redouane, and Zaghba, an Italian national of Moroccan descent.
Photos of London attackers’ fake bomb belts released
Photos of London attackers’ fake bomb belts released
Outrage as pro-Palestine protester to spend 21 months in prison before trial
- William Plastow, 34, took part in a demonstration against Israeli weapons firm’s factory last year
- He was given a trial date of April 2026 over charges of criminal damage, violent disorder, aggravated burglary
LONDON: The mother of a British man charged over a protest against an Israeli weapons firm has voiced outrage over the expected 21-month imprisonment of her son before his trial, The Guardian reported.
William Plastow, a 34-year-old resident of Manchester, is accused of taking part in a Palestine Action demonstration against a factory in Bristol owned by Elbit Systems.
The protest, which took place in August last year, involved 17 others. The group has been dubbed the “Filton 18.”
Plastow, a script editor, has denied charges of criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary relating to the demonstration.
Six of the 18, including Plastow, who are all being held in prison, have been given a trial date of April next year.
Defendants should not spend more than six months in jail while awaiting trial, according to custody time limit guidelines.
By the time of Plastow’s expected trial, he will have served the equivalent of a sentence of more than five years, based on new sentencing rules that allow the release of convicted criminals who have served one-third of their sentences.
Jane Plastow, his mother, said the case might set a record for the longest time anyone has been held in prison awaiting trial on protest charges in Britain.
The 66-year-old, an academic, said: “It’s outrageous, it’s terrible. Will is a kind of glass-half-empty guy, so he tends toward (believing in) the worst possible outcome.
“Every day, which has become a kind of ritual, I have to say: ‘Yes, you are going to get out of there, this is not the end of your life. They are not going to be able to keep you in for years and years and years.’ Because you just obviously feel so helpless and hopeless locked up in that place.”
In a prison diary published in Inside Time, Plastow revealed he had suffered suicidal thoughts.
He was denied bail despite agreeing to a slew of measures designed to limit his behavior, including wearing an electronic tag, having his phone and passport confiscated, and submitting regular police reports on his activity.
The judge responsible for the decision said Plastow posed a risk of breaking the law again, his mother said.
“What you’re being required to prove is a negative — well, you can never prove the negative, can you?” she said. “You can’t prove that you’re not going to do anything.”
Plastow’s artner of a decade, Valentina Tschismarov, said: “I think the worst that I have personally seen him was when his bail application was denied, which obviously was really disheartening for all of us. Shortly afterward myself and his mum went to visit him together and I was very worried at that point because he was really shaken, just out of it.
“Even on the phone in the weeks after that, he just sounded very distant and kind of broken down. It seems incredibly disproportionate. I always imagined that there were these protections in place and you couldn’t just have somebody jailed without a conviction for these amounts of time.
“I think people are not really aware.”
The 18 protesters arrested at the Elbit facility last year were initially arrested under the Terrorism Act, meaning they could be held for 14 days without charge.
However, despite the Crown Prosecution Service saying the protest held a “terrorism connection,” none of the 18 have been charged with terror offenses.
Kemi Badenoch says she refuses to speak to women in burqas at constituency surgeries
- ‘I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face,’ UK Conservative Party leader tells interviewer
- Badenoch links issue to concerns over integration, pointing to Shariah courts and cousin marriages as ‘more insidious’ challenges
LONDON: The leader of the UK’s Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch has said she asks women to remove face coverings, including burqas, before speaking with them at constituency surgeries, and believes employers should be allowed to ban staff from wearing the garment.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Badenoch said she supported the right of individuals to wear what they liked, but drew a line at face coverings in certain settings.
“If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it’s a burqa or a balaclava,” she said. “I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face.”
Her comments follow renewed debate over the issue after Reform UK’s new member of Parliament, Sarah Pochin, urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to consider a burqa ban similar to those in countries such as France.
Party leader Nigel Farage also backed the call, prompting a backlash from Muslim groups and some within his own party.
Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, briefly resigned after the row, citing exhaustion and racist abuse, but has since returned.
He told The Sunday Times he might support a ban in principle, but said other issues were more urgent.
Yusuf is expected to take on a number of roles within the party, including overseeing local council spending.
Badenoch linked the issue of face coverings to broader concerns over integration, pointing to Shariah courts and cousin marriages as “more insidious” challenges.
“People should be allowed to wear whatever they want, not what their husband or community tells them to wear,” she said.
She also backed the right of organizations to set their own dress codes, saying: “It shouldn’t be something that people should be able to override.”
While employers can impose dress policies, they must meet legal tests of proportionality and legitimacy under equality and human rights law.
Restrictions may be justified on grounds such as health and safety, or the need for clear communication.
The debate echoes comments made in 2006 by then-Labour home secretary Jack Straw, who said he asked women visiting his surgery to remove the burqa to enable more meaningful conversation.
Restive Indian state orders curfew after fresh violence
- Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community
- The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group
IMPHAL, India: An Indian state riven by ethnic tensions imposed an Internet shutdown and curfew after protesters clashed with security forces over the arrest of some members of a radical group, police said Sunday.
Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than two years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community that have killed more than 250 people.
The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group.
Incensed mobs demanding their release stormed a police post, set fire to a bus and blocked roads in parts of the state capital Imphal.
Manipur police announced a curfew in five districts, including Imphal West and Bishnupur, due to the “developing law and order situation.”
“Prohibitory orders have been issued by District Magistrates. Citizens are requested to cooperate with the orders,” the police said in a statement.
Arambai Tenggol, which is alleged to have orchestrated the violence against the Kuki community, has also announced a 10-day shutdown in the valley districts.
The state’s home ministry has ordered all Internet and mobile data services in volatile districts to be shut off for five days in order to bring the latest unrest under control.
Internet services were shut down for months in Manipur during the initial outbreak of violence in 2023, which displaced around 60,000 people from their homes according to government figures.
Thousands of the state’s residents are still unable to return home owing to ongoing tensions.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.
Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.
Indian FM starts week-long EU trip in new cooperation push
- Jaishankar will inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
- India and EU are negotiating a free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year
NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has embarked on Sunday a week-long trip for talks with the top diplomats of the EU, France and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe, his office said.
Jaishankar is set to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot, and “will be holding a Strategic Dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
“The visit of EAM is expected to further deepen India’s friendly relations with the European Union, France and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas.”
The foreign minister will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.
The Raisina Dialogue is a premier multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and non-government officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU committed to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.
During last week’s talks in Paris, nearly half the agenda — covering areas like customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property — has been agreed on.
“The partnership between India and France, and India and the EU continues to evolve dramatically,” Pant said, adding that Jaishankar’s trip is also about conveying “how India feels about the changing strategic realities, as well as what has happened with Pakistan.”
Last month, India and Pakistan engaged days-long cross-border fire. Indian forces launched a series of strikes across the Line of Control — the de facto border that separates the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of the disputed Kashmir territory. They also hit other sites on the Pakistani mainland, targeting what New Delhi claimed were militant positions.
Pakistan retaliated with strikes on Indian military targets before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on May 10. According to the Pakistani military, its forces had downed six Indian warplanes, including several French aircraft Rafale and a Mirage 2000.
The escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors took place as India blamed Pakistan for a deadly militant attack, in which 26 tourists were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir — Islamabad denied any involvement.
Indian FM begins week-long EU trip in new cooperation push
- Jaishankar will inaugurate first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
- India, EU negotiating free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year
NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar set out on Sunday to begin a week of talks with leading diplomats of the EU, France, and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe.
Jaishankar is due to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot during the trip. He will also hold “a strategic dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The visit is expected to “further deepen India’s friendly relations with the EU, France, and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas,” the ministry added.
Jaishankar will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.
The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and nongovernment officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU agreed to finalize negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.
Talks in Paris last week resulted in agreement on almost half the agenda, covering areas such as customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property.
