ISIS terror videos found hidden in Briton’s shoe

Ataubaq Taj jailed for five years for possessing large amounts of ISIS propaganda material

Ataubaq Taj was jailed after police found he had ISIS training guides. Greater Manchester Police

An ISIS supporter in Britain has been jailed after terrorist propaganda videos were found on a pen drive hidden inside his shoe.

Police searching the home of Ataubaq Taj, 34, in Salford, north-west England, found ISIS training guides, and a video demonstrating the most effective ways to kill with a knife.

Another video showed how to make bombs. Two men were murdered during the video, said police in Manchester.

Taj was jailed for five years on Wednesday after a jury last month unanimously found him guilty of terrorism offences.

Police said there was no indication that he was planning a terrorist attack but he had stored an “alarming” amount of material on a laptop, pen drives, disks and his phone.

Taj was arrested at his home in July 2019 when officers found a pen drive in his shoe which he falsely claimed had fallen through a hole in his trouser pocket.

The jury was told that he had laughed about the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing in which 22 people were killed, the Manchester Evening News reported.

He sent a WhatsApp message the day after the suicide bomb attack claiming that it was a government conspiracy to secure votes before national elections the following month.

Hashem Abedi, the dead bomber’s brother, was convicted of murder earlier this year and jailed for life for his role in preparing the attack.

DCI Andrew Meeks, of the UK’s counter-terrorist network in the north-west of England, said the conviction followed months of meticulous examination of “dangerous propagandist material” on his devices.

“While there were no known plans for Taj to put into action the material he was consuming, it was nevertheless alarming that he was storing so much of this dangerous digital media on his devices,” he said.