Mohammed Afroze
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Mohammed Afroze (Arabic: محمد أفروز) is an Al-Qaeda operative and Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. On 22 July 2005 in Mumbai, India, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy, conspiracy to disturb relations between friendly nations, and forging documents.
He was sentenced to seven years in gaol for his role in an Al-Qaeda plot in which airplanes were to have been crashed into the House of Commons and Tower Bridge in London on 11 September 2001. A parallel Al-Qaeda cell is alleged to have intended to simultaneously fly a plane into the Rialto Towers in Melbourne and House of Parliament in India. According to reports of the confession by Afroze, he and his associates were in the boarding lounge about to board the Manchester to London flight they were to hijack, saw the extent of the damage in America, panicked and fled.
Afroze, who was nicknamed "The Pilot", confessed to spending £150,000 on flying lessons before the September 11, 2001 attacks, at the same flying school in Florida as the 9/11 hijackers. In addition, in August 2001, Afroze enrolled in a £50,000 one-year residential course at the Cabair College of Air Training in Bedford.
A 7 December 2001 article in the Daily Mail in United Kingdom said "he had credit cards and a passport with visas, obtained under the false name of Afridi, for all the countries allegedly being targeted.", which, if true, would support the evidence about additional attacks on September 11, 2001.
According to The Times on July 23, 2005: "Afroze admitted that he and seven Al-Qaeda operatives planned to hijack aircraft at Heathrow and fly them into the two London landmarks. The suicide squad included men from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afroze said. They booked seats on two Manchester-bound flights, but fled just before they were due to board."
Afroze returned to India in October 2001. He was arrested in Bombay and charged with “committing depredation on territories at peace with India”.
Mobin Solker, his lawyer, pledged to challenge the conviction, saying: “The confessional statement was taken in custody where Afroze was pressurised and tortured.... My client, who was pursuing a career in flying, happened to be a Muslim and happened to come back to India not long after September 11.”
