Police 'missed opportunities to stop imam murder'

A "serious blunder" led to missed opportunities to disrupt a plot by Islamic State extremists to kill an imam, a public inquiry has found.

Father-of-seven Jalal Uddin, 71, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in a Rochdale park by Mohammed Kadir in February 2016 because Mr Uddin practised a form of Islamic healing the terror group regarded as "black magic".

A report from a public inquiry into the incident found all three men convicted after the murder had previously come to the attention of the police.

It also found Kadir, then aged 24, was known to Counter Terrorism Police at the time of Mr Uddin's murder and had been identified as a person of high risk and significant concern.

Kadir, from Oldham, fled to Syria after the murder but his getaway driver, Mohammed Syeedy, 21, a former Manchester United steward and charity worker from Rochdale, was jailed for life for the murder.

Both had been consumed by hatred of Mr Uddin after becoming supporters of Islamic State (IS), Syeedy's trial heard.

Kadir's whereabouts are still unknown.

A third man, Mohammed Syadul Hussain, who had already come under police scrutiny after his nephew, aged eight, went into school saying he wanted to join the Taliban, was jailed for five years for helping Kadir leave the UK days after the killing.

The report the need for a targeted police investigation into Kadir's activities had been recognised by December 2015.

But the steps necessary to set up such an investigation, including the appointment of a senior investigating officer (SIO) to head it, were not taken.

A potential appointee was identified within the North West Counter Terrorism Unit (NWCTU), but he was not put in a position to take up SIO duties.

This was for reasons beyond the control of that officer and the NWCTU, the report found.

The exact details of what happened has not been made public.

The report by His Honour Thomas Teague KC found this failure "amounted to a serious blunder" and led to the loss of two chances "to detect or disrupt the activities of Kadir and Syeedy" before the murder.

"Above all, I extend my condolences to Mr Uddin's family and friends," he said.

The inquiry's findings say the investigations into the activities of Kadir and Hussain before the murder of Jalal Uddin were hampered by "serious mistakes".

Former Det Insp Frank Morris, who retired from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in 2021, told the inquiry an investigation into Hussain had been closed down prematurely two years before the murder.

Later, the failure to appoint an SIO led to the two "missed opportunities".

The first was that Kadir's Facebook posts of September 2015, which were captured by police but not reviewed before the murder, might have been scrutinised.

Kadir's social media post had described Imams like Mr Uddin as "dirty kufr people" and vowed to "take this on" to "paralyse them" and asked for prayers, "that we do not get caught".

The report found the second missed opportunity was that even if the plot itself had not been detected through analysis of the Facebook posts, other police investigative actions concerning Kadir might have detected the plot.

Such actions could have even disrupted it, if only incidentally, the report found.

A month before the killing, intelligence suggested that Kadir had access to openly available extremist literature, including bomb-making manuals and other material providing instructions on how to undertake violent jihad.

The report added: "The failure to make a prompt and effective appointment of an SIO thus led to the irretrievable loss of opportunities which, had they been acted upon, might have prevented the murder of Jalal Uddin."

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