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Manchester synagogue attacker was ‘clingy and obsessive’, friend told police
Mohammad Bashir drove Heaton Park attacker Jihad Al-Shamie to survey a military base in August 2025
A former delivery driver claimed he was “shocked” and “sickened” when he discovered his friend had carried out a terror attack at a Manchester synagogue.
Mohammad Bashir, 31, was arrested at Manchester Airport on his return from his brother’s wedding in Pakistan and questioned about the knife rampage of Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, weeks earlier on October 2.
Al-Shamie was shot dead by police during the attack as he killed one man and injured three others, while a stray police bullet struck another worshipper who died.
Bashir initially provided a prepared statement to police in which he denied knowledge of the synagogue attack.
He said he was “shocked” when he found out and “never thought in a million years that Jihad would do something like that and it made him feel sick”.
Last month Bashir, of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, pleaded guilty to preparations of terrorist acts.
The Crown say he conducted hostile reconnaissance of the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Swindon, on August 14 last year, together with Al-Shamie.
Prosecutors added it was the sort of attack that Al-Shamie went on to commit at the Heaton Park synagogue, although there was no evidence to suggest Bashir was involved in the planning of the October 2 incident.
In Bashir’s sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC said Bashir told police he became friends with Al-Shamie in 2023 when they met at the Al Sunnah mosque in Cheetham Hill.
After a few months, they exchanged numbers and they connected over “similar family issues” regarding ex partners, the court heard.
Bashir said his last communication with his “mosque friend” was in September and he had distanced himself from Al-Shamie because he was “annoying”.
He told detectives he “did not really know Al-Shamie’s mindset” but was “disgusted by it” and said “it goes against the religion completely, which is why having the right knowledge is important”.
Bashir added that Al-Shamie was “clingy, obsessive and possibly depressed”.
Bashir said he used to work in Whitefield, a Jewish area, as a delivery driver and he “learnt about their religion from them and he enjoyed gaining knowledge”.
The Crown say his initial account was “in many, many regards, untrue” as police subsequently revealed to him they had recovered phone messages from Al-Shamie.
Bashir was charged in connection with the UK Defence Academy reconnaissance allegations and indicated his innocence on his first crown court appearance.
Before his guilty plea last month, he served a defence statement in April in which he said he was not aware of any plan to attend the academy and said Al-Shamie had asked him to go on a road trip to view a property “down South” for a possible house move.
On Wednesday, Mr Polnay told the court: “Given the defendant’s anti-Semitic views and support for violent jihad, the prosecution would be surprised if the defendant was not pleased with Jihad Al-Shamie’s attack on the synagogue.
“However, the prosecution submits this is probably not a matter that the court needs to resolve.”
In mitigation, Mohammed Nawaz KC said Bashir’s family and members of his community spoke of him as a “decent, hard-working, caring man”.
Mr Nawaz said: “They speak of their surprise and shock at his offending, which they say is out of character.
“Somewhere along the line, something in this defendant must have changed from the way he was brought up, from the version of Islam that was given to him by his parents and family.
“Something changed in his thinking, approach and interpretation of his religion as he became radicalised and extremist in his thinking.
“He met Jihad Al-Shamie in about 2023 but had not gone looking for him and was not initially aware of his extremist views”
From September 2024 and “possibly before that”, Mr Nawaz said the pair shared their extremist views on social media.
He submitted that Bashir had “a change of heart” after the reconnaissance visit.
He said: “The defendant did nothing positive after that day to further whatever plan had been discussed with Jihad Al-Shamie after that point.
“There was a trailing off of contact between Al-Shamie and the defendant, and there was no attack that he is involved in.
“No doubt on any view, this is a serious case, but we submit it can be met with a determinate sentence or a determinate sentence with an extension to it.”
The case was adjourned until Thursday when Bashir will be sentenced.
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