London: The terrorist Khalid Masood was not a “lone wolf” and others had played a key part in indoctrinating him and helping to carry out Wednesday’s deadly attacks in London, security officials believe.
The disclosure that the British-born Muslim convert was likely to have been part of a wider conspiracy came as armed police detained 11 people in raids across the country with two of the arrests, including that of a woman, described as ” significant” in the investigation.
Three cars were also taken away for forensic examination. Police are still hunting associates of Masood who are believed to be linked to the Westminster attack.
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It has also emerged that Masood used the Whatsapp messaging service just minutes before he smashed his hired Hyundai car into the railings at the Houses of Parliament.
There is no evidence that anyone else accompanied Masood during the rampage in which he murdered four people and injured 50 others. But the timing and sequence of the radicalisation of Masood, born Adrian Elms, will, the law agencies believe, provide important pointers towards what unfolded.
Masood had come to the notice of MI5 and Scotland Yard’ Special Branch in the past for associating with known extremists, but, security officials insist, had not been involved in plotting terrorist acts.
There has been speculation that the radicalisation process began when he went to work as an English teacher in Saudi Arabia in 2005.
Masood and his wife, who have three children, are said to have later divorced. But changing religion also brought a change to Masood’s circle of friends and acquaintances with him gravitating to those sharing his conservative interpretation of Islam.
He is also said to have spent long hours indoors during the day, a lot of the time on the Internet.
Whether he was steered towards terrorism online is a major part of the inquiry with a number of computers and tablets, of the killer and those detained, being examined by police.