'July 7 bombers had planned to attack London day before'

UK-BOMBERS

H S Rao
London, Oct 12 (PTI) Terrorists plotting the July 7,
2005 bomb attacks had planned to unleash carnage a day
earlier, but changed their plan after their leader's wife had
complications with her pregnancy, the inquests into the deaths
have heard.
Mohammed Sidique Khan, the terrorists' ring leader,
took his pregnant wife to hospital two days before the attacks
and sent a text message to his fellow bombers telling them
that the plans had been delayed.
The details emerged as the full inquests into the
deaths of those who died at the hands of Khan, Shehzad
Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay in the suicide
attacks five years ago opened here Tuesday.
Had the bombs been detonated on July 6, the explosions
would have come just hours before the announcement that London
had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.
Sidique Khan's wife had a miscarriage on the day of
the bombings.
It also emerged that the men had extra bombs and a
handgun they could have used to defend themselves if stopped
by police and their original targets included Paddington,
Westminster and Kensington.
They did not reach their destinations because their
train into London was delayed.
Tube bosses waited more than 40 minutes after the
explosions before admitting the network was under attack.
Opening the inquest, lawyer Hugo Keith, QC, described
the killings – the worst terror atrocity committed on British
soil – as "merciless savagery" and "unimaginable tidal wave of
shock, misery and horror"
The bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700 others
onboard three London Underground trains at Aldgate, Edgware
Road and Russell Square, and on a bus at Tavistock Square.
Relatives of the dead have led a five-year campaign
for an independent inquiry to examine whether the 2005
bombings could have been prevented.
Keith told the inquest there was evidence that the
gang could have been planning to act 24 hours earlier. PTI HSR
MHM



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