Dhiren Barot

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Main article: 2004 Financial buildings plot

Dhiren Barot's mugshot

Dhiren Barot (known under various aliases: Bilal, Abu Musa al-Hindi, and Abu Eissa al-Hindi) (1971 - ) is a convicted terrorist from the United Kingdom. He was born in India into a Hindu family.^[1] His parents moved to the UK from Kenya in 1973 to escape violence and discrimination in Kenya, when he was only one year old. His father, a banker in Kenya, had to support his family by working in a factory in UK.

Barot converted to Islam at age 20 in the UK. He attended the Kingsbury High School in north London. He worked for a living on a regular basis only during 1991 to 1995 as an airline ticket and reservations agent for Air Malta, in Piccadilly, central London. It is unclear how he supported himself at other times.^[2]

Barot travelled to Pakistan in 1995. He took part in militant campaigns against Indian forces in Kashmir. Subsequently he wrote a book, The Army of Madinah in Kashmir, in 1999, discussing his experience and describing ways to kill Indian soldiers. In the late 1990s and early 2000, he served as an agent for al-Qaeda.^[3]

He arrived in USA in August 2000 on student visa along with Nadeem Tarmohamed; however, he never attended any college in the USA ^[4].

Barot was charged by the UK authorities with the following offenses:

Conspiracy to commit murder.
Conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by the use of radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and or explosives.
Possessing detailed reconnaissance on the Prudential Building in New Jersey.
Possessing detailed reconnaissance the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup in New York, and two notebooks with information on explosives.^[5]

Barot admitted to plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund headquarters, and the World Bank, among other targets. His accused co-conspirators are Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 24; Abdul Aziz Jalil, 31; Omar Abdul Rehman, 20; Junade Feroze, 28; Zia ul Haq, 25; Qaisar Shaffi, 25; and Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26, Britons of Pakistani origin, most of Mirpuri descent.

Much of the information about Barot's role in the planning of further al-Qaeda attacks came from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a prominent al-Qaeda operative captured by the Pakistani ISI. A witness stated that he attended Camp Hudaybiyah, run by the Al Jamaah Al Islamiyah group, where he was instructed in small arms training, mortars, basic explosives handling, navigation and jungle patrolling ^[6].

The prosecution did not dispute claims from the defence that no funding had been received for the projects, nor any vehicles or bomb-making materials acquired. ^[7]

On 7 November 2006 Barot was sentenced to life imprisonment, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder; it was recommended that he serve a minimum of 40 years. ^[8]