Four UK terror blast plotters including Zahid Iqbal, 31, Sharfaraz Ahmed, 25, Umar Arshad, 24 and Syed farhan Hussain, 22 have been sentenced to imprisonment on Thursday. Out of the four Zahid Iqbal and Mohammad Sharfaraz, who are found guilty of plotting a remote controlled bomb planted on a toy car, have been sentenced to life in prison. They had plans to detonate a Territorial Army (TA) base in Luton. The accused were arrested following a series of raids at their homes in April last year after an intelligence-led joint operation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and the British Security Service (BSS).

The sentence has been imposed after the security agencies heard Zahid Iqbal and Mohammad Sharfaraz over telephone between January, 2011-April 2012. They were discussing the bomb plots. The sentence has been passed by Justice Wilkie QC who said that the pair posed “a significant risk of serious harm to the public.” He imposed a custodial sentence of at least 11 years and three months, with a five-year extension period subject to licence.

On the contrary, the other two accused including Umar Arshad and Syed Farhan Hussain have been put behind bars for serving at least a six-years and nine months and five years and three months jail terms respectively for their roles in preparing for what could have been a deadly terror attack.

The UK security agencies had heard the four men discussing methods, materials and targets for a terrorist attack, the court heard. Iqbal and Ahmed discussed about making an improvised explosive device (IED) based on instructions in online al Qaeda manual “How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom - by the al Qaeda chef”, the court was told. Iqbal was recorded told Ahmed that he was looking and drove past the TA centre, Marsh Road. At the bottom of their gate there’s quite a big gap. If you had a little toy car, it drives underneath one of their vehicles or something.