Mohammad Sidique Khan

Mohammad Sidique Khan (20 October 1974 – 7 July 2005) was a British terrorist. He was the oldest and is believed to have been the leader of the four Islamist suicide bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which bombs detonated on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London killed 52 people, and injured over 700. Khan bombed the Edgware Road train, killing himself and six other people. On 1 September 2005, a videotape emerged featuring Khan. The videotape, shown by Al Jazeera Television, also shows Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was later leader of al-Qaeda. The two men do not appear together and the British government says that al-Qaeda was not connected with the bombing. The Home Office believes the tape was edited after the suicide attacks and dismisses it as evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement. In the film, Khan declares: "I and thousands like me have forsaken everything for what we believe" and refers to his expectation that the media would already have painted a picture of him in accordance with government "spin". He goes on to say, "Your democratically elected governments continually perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support makes you directly responsible. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation".