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Man confesses plot to behead U.K. soldier

LONDON: A court on Tuesday heard grisly details of an alleged extremist plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier to cause “fear” and “panic” in the army and the wider public.

The court was told that the extremists, allegedly part of a “terror cell” with links to Pakistan, planned to snatch the unnamed soldier off Birmingham’s Broad Street, take him to a garage and then behead him “like a pig”.

The footage of the killing was planned to be put on the internet to create panic, the prosecution claimed.

A 37-year-old unemployed charity worker Parviz Khan reportedly confessed that he planned to carry out the kidnapping and the execution while three others — Basiru Gasama (30), Mohammed Irfan (31), and Hamid Elasmar (44) — admitted lesser offences connected with the plot.Nigel Rumfitt, Queen’s Counsel, prosecuting, said, according to the plan, the soldier “would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig”.

“This atrocity would be filmed... and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces”.

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