The men, from London, Stoke and Cardiff, were inspired by al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and used their English-language magazine Inspire
as a guide.

In Stoke the gang talked about attacking local pubs and clubs but decided to
travel abroad to get more training.

In East London, Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, the ring leader, and Shah Rahman, 29,
were under surveillance as they toured central London sites for six hours
between 3.30pm and 9.30pm on November 28 2010.

They got off a bus in Trafalgar Square and walked along Whitehall towards
Westminster. They were observed looking at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the
Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Blackfriars Bridge and the Church of
Scientology on Queen Victoria Street.

^{The interior of Westminster Abbey, London (Alamy)}

After visiting a McDonalds restaurant on Cannon Street in the City of London,
the two men boarded a bus back towards East London.

In the bedroom at Chowdhury’s flat in the Isle of Dogs, police found a
handwritten target list on a folded piece of A4 paper on the computer desk.

The Stoke group have their origins in Pakistan, while the London and Cardiff
groups were originally from Bangladesh.

The three groups were inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular, who died in a drone attack last year.

The defendants made contact with each other through dawah – proselytising – or
by Paltalk or other internet messaging.

Meetings took place in November and December 2010 at which the defendants
planned to use explosive devices to attack significant locations in London
and around the country.

Their plans could be carried out without much preparation and were very
difficult to intercept, sources said.

The London and Cardiff groups were keen to act quickly, at first talking about
sending mail bombs through the Royal Mail and then deciding on a plan to set
off bombs in the toilets of the stock exchange.

^{(Clockwise from top left) Mohammed Shahjahan, Omar Latif (centre), Nazam
Hussain, Usman Khan and Mohibur Rahman (PA)}

The Stoke group talked about persuading others to take bombs into pubs in
their area so that they would explode.

Abdul Miah, 25, said to be at the centre of the Cardiff gang, and his brother
Omar Latif, 28, pleaded guilty to taking part in the Stock Exchange plot.
Gurukanth Desai, 30, pleaded guilty to attending meetings.

Mohibur Rahman, 27, from Stoke pleaded guilty to possession of a document
containing information useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

The charges relate to two editions of al-Qaeda’s English language Inspire
magazine.

Usman Khan, 20, Mohammed Shahjahan, 27, and Nazam Hussain, 26, all from Stoke
pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism.

At Khan’s home in Persia Walk, Stoke, police officers recovered a folded A4
sheet of paper which bore notes of the structure, roles and responsibilities
of individuals in a terrorist cell.

It included the headings ‘structure’, ‘responsibilities’, ‘communication’ and
‘local’ and appeared to be written by Shahjahan.