Terrorist who plotted to blow up army base faces new parole hearing after Patrick Christys intervened

Isaac Crowson
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:28:40 +0000

A British terrorist who plotted to blow up an army base and was about to be released from jail until GB News drew attention to the case will now face an entirely new Parole Board hearing.

Zahid Iqbal was given the all-clear to be released by the Parole Board - despite two experts who had monitored his progress in prison urging the panel not to.

Iqbal had been jailed for wanting to send a remote-controlled toy car carrying a bomb under the gates of a Territorial Army centre.

It was only when Patrick Christys highlighted the case on GB News that Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy to intervene.

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Mr Lammy asked the Parole Board to reconsider and after several weeks, they have decided to hold an entirely new review.
New experts will now fully assess the case again and are being urged to keep Iqbal locked up inside.

It has now been revealed that two new shocking cases have been referred to the board for hearings.

Iqbal and fellow plotter Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed spoke about making an improvised explosive device using instructions in an al-Qaeda manual entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom, by 'the al-Qaeda chef'.

Covert recordings of the pair heard Iqbal suggesting attaching the bomb to a remote-controlled toy car and sending it under a gate.

Iqbal was recorded telling Ahmed: 'I was looking and drove past like the TA centre, Marsh Road. At the bottom of their gate there's quite a big gap.

And two other dangerous terrorists who had links to Osama bin Laden and plotted to have British soldiers killed could be released from prison in weeks.

Both men have Parole Board hearings in the coming weeks in unconnected cases amid fears they could commit terrorist acts again in Britain.

Israr Malik worked on a book stall with other extremists where he tried to recruit and radicalise other Muslims to kill British soldiers in Afghanistan.

He has a parole hearing on July 7, 21 years to the day after the horrific 7/7 bombings in London that killed 52 people.

Malik, described in court as a "fully committed jihadi", and targeted what they thought were vulnerable Muslims to travel to Afghanistan to "fight, kill and die". However, undercover police foiled the plan.

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He was convicted of two counts of soliciting to murder and preparing acts of terrorism and handed an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of five years in 2011.

Now, he faces a Parole Board hearing on July 7, where experts could decide to release him.

The other terrorist up for parole is Rochdale-born Rangzieb Ahmed, who has a new hearing in August.

Ahmed is one of the country’s most dangerous jailed terrorists with links to the 7/7 bombers and was also once described as Osama bin Laden's former right-hand man.

He was the UK's top al-Qaeda commander and was responsible for setting up a terrorist cell in Manchester. He was the first person to be charged with directing terrorism in Britain.

Malik worked at the Islamic bookstall in Longsight market in Manchester.

He and his fellow gang members were the focus of a 15-month undercover police investigation where officers used codenames Ray and Simon. Malik was filmed attempting to groom the officers to travel to training camps to "fight, kill and die".

Another gang member was Munir Farooqi, a former Taliban fighter, who was given four life sentences. He was turned down for parole last year.

Meanwhile, Ahmed was rejected for parole in September 2022. Officials decided he was too dangerous to be released.

A year later, he was ordered to take part in a deradicalisation programme. And another bid for freedom was blocked in 2024 when parole chiefs found he was still a risk to the public.

He is thought to have links to every major British terror cell and was heard boasting of meeting the brains behind 9/11.

At Ahmed's trial, he was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years after Manchester Crown Court heard he was behind the terror cell.

Counter-terrorism chiefs were not sure where Ahmed was planning to strike, but were convinced an attack was imminent.

Ahmed later sued MI5 and MI6 for alleged collusion in his torture by Pakistani intelligence, but in 2020 had his damages claim thrown out by the High Court.

It was reported that Attorney General Lord Hermer had fought for compensation for the terrorist.

In both cases, a panel of experts will review huge dossiers of evidence in the cases.

They will assess the current risk threat and consider any progress made in prison.

They are also likely to hear evidence from specialists and officials who have been in contact with them in jail.