Terror threat is far greater now than 20yrs ago

TWENTY years ago tomorrow, a split-second decision saved London City worker Sajda Mughal's life on a chilling day of horror that rocked Britain

- BEN GRIFFITHS

She was late getting to her local Piccadilly line Tube platform and instead of heading to the first carriage as usual she hopped onto a different one. Seconds after the train left King's Cross for Russell Square, it was rocked by the biggest explosion Sajda had ever heard. And it was to change her life for ever.

Because in the aftermath brave Sajda, who is a Muslim, immediately decided to quit her job and dedicate her life to fighting extremism. It won her an OBE from the King in 2015 for her tireless work.

She set up the world's first online extremism programme working with mothers to educate and prevent young Muslims from being radicalised. She toured schools doing workshops for more than 25,000 children and has worked with families whose radicalised children fled to Syria to join IS.

But now 20 years on from that dreadful day - in which four suicide attacks on London's transport network killed 52 people and injured 770 - mum-of-three Sajda, 42, believes Britain's terror threat "is in a worse place than we were 20 years ago". She blasts Prevent - a national programme aimed at stopping people becoming terrorists that she once worked on - as being "barely fit for purpose" and slams politicians for not doing enough to stem the terror threat.