UK officials were probably too busy hounding counter-jihadists and banning foreign ones from entering the country to pay very close attention to the whereabouts of Abu Rumasayah.
“New Jihadi John revealed: family of British Muslim convert, Siddhartha Dhar, say he is Isil killer,” by Martin Evans, Telegraph, January 4, 2016:
The key suspect in the hunt for the new ‘Jihadi John’ was able to travel to Syria with his wife and four children under the noses of the security services, despite being on bail for alleged terrorism offences, it has emerged.
The family of British Muslim convert, Siddhartha Dhar, last night admitted that the killer seen shooting a prisoner in the head in the latest Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) video, could be the 32-year-old former bouncy castle salesman from east London.
Both his mother and sister said they had watched the video, released by Isil on Sunday, and noticed similarities between the voice of the masked Jihadi and Dhar.
Dhar, who is also known as Abu Rumasayah, was arrested in September 2014 alongside the preacher Anjem Choudary on suspicion of belonging to the banned group Al-Muhajiroun.
Choudary will appear in court on suspicion of terror offences next week, but Dhar will not be in the dock alongside him after fleeing Britain.
Just hours after being granted police bail, Dhar caught a bus to Paris with his family and then travelled on to Syria where he joined Isil.
He then taunted the British authorities by boasting of his new life in the Caliphate and posted pictures on Twitter, showing him holding an AK-47 assault rifle in one arm and his baby son on the other.Voice recognition experts working for the security services were last night understood to be urgently scrutinising the Isil video amid the suggestion that the Islamist’s voice matched that of Dhar.
Meanwhile in other developments
:: A child who also featured in the video was positively identified as the son of Jihadi bride, Grace Dare, from Lewisham, south east London.
:: Prime Minister, David Cameron, denounced the video as “despicable” but said people should watch it to remind themselves of Isil’s “ghastly” tactics.
:: Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, refused to answer questions about the Isil video.
If Dhar’s identity in the terrorist outrage is confirmed it will lead to uncomfortable questions for the security services, who allowed him to leave the country just hours after the police granted him bail.
Speaking at the family home, last night his mother, Sobita Dhar said she could not rule out that the man in the murderous video was her son.
She said: “I heard the voice, yes, but I don’t know, I’m not sure of the voice. These are the most difficult questions to answer. I just cannot say. I’m not sure within myself whether it is the truth or not.”
His sister, Konika Dhar, from north London said she did not want to believe that her brother could be responsible for the outrage, but conceded that the voice on the video “did sound like him”.
She said: “I can’t believe it. This is just so shocking for me. I don’t know what the authorities are doing to confirm the identity, but I need to know if it is.”
I am sure she is shocked! Shocked!