Indian police question family of UK terrorist plot suspects

Jul 6, 2007, 8:03 GMT

New Delhi - With evidence of the role of three Indians emerging in the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, police in India's southern city of Bangalore have questioned the family of the suspects, media reports said Friday.

The Crime Branch of the Bangalore police launched a full investigation into the terrorist plot, and on Thursday night questioned the family of Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed, both brothers, who are among the eight suspects in the case, the NDTV network reported.

Indian news channels reported that Kafeel Ahmed, 27, identified by British investigators as Khalid Ahmed, allegedly carried out both the London and Glasgow attacks along with Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi.

Kafeel Ahmed, an aeronautical engineer with a doctorate from Britain and Abdullah carried out the attack at Glasgow airport, and were also believed to have driven the two Mercedes 'bomb cars' down to central London last Friday.

Local newspapers described Kafeel as the 'Glasgow bomber' who was suspected to have driven the burning jeep into the Glasgow airport and was admitted at a hospital with severe burn injuries.

The reports also said that Kafeel is the brother of Sabeel Ahmed, 26, a doctor arrested in Liverpool and introduced him to the two other suspects Mohammed Asha and Abdullah in Cambridge in 2005.

But the Bangalore police declined to confirm whether the Kafeel and Sabeel were related or whether Kafeel was the man who drove the burning jeep into the airport.

'We are carrying out investigations but nothing more interesting than what has appeared in the media has emerged,' N Achyut Rao, Bangalore police commissioner told the NDTV.

Meanwhile, the Times of India daily reported that Kafeel told his family that he was working on a 'large-scale confidential project.'

'I am involved in a large-scale confidential project. It is about global warming. I cannot reveal the details,' he told his family in Bangalore, before leaving for Britain in May, the newspaper reported.

On June 30, one day after the two car bombs in London were discovered and defused, Ahmed told his mother, Zakia Ahmed over telephone that his 'earlier presentation failed' and asked them to pray for him, the report said.

The third Indian in what is suspected to be an al-Qaeda-linked terror cell is Mohammed Haneef, a 27-year old doctor arrested by the Australian police in Brisbane for terrorist links.

Haneef, a cousin of the Ahmed brothers, was in close touch with Sabeel, the Times reported.

The families of the Ahmed brothers as well as Haneef insist they are innocent and have requested the Indian authorities for help in the matter.

According to investigators, seven of the eight suspects are doctors, and one, the only woman, is a laboratory researcher. All worked in British hospitals for the National Health Service.

Singh had on Thursday assured British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of 'all possible help' in the investigations.

During a briefing with female journalists in New Delhi, Singh said he was worried about the possible stereotyping of Indians in Britain after the events of last week. Labelling Indians and Pakistanis as terrorists is avoidable, he said.

'We should not fix labels like Muslims or non-Muslims. It won't help us in understanding the situation or dealing with it. It is very stereotype to classify a person,' he said.

'A terrorist is a terrorist and he has no religion or community,' he said, adding, 'It is wrong to label any community or country. We have to look for solutions.'