By IANS
Bangalore : Kafeel Ahmed, the Indian engineer alleged to have driven the jeep that exploded in Glasgow, is indeed the elder brother of Sabeel Ahmed, another prime suspect detained in the British terror plots, police here said Friday.
Police questioned the family members of Sabeel, a doctor, and Kafeel here for the second day Friday. They, however, have no information on emerging reports that two foreigner friends of Kafeel – one a Pakistani and another a Palestinian – had fled the city.
Police said that if true, reports about the foreigner friends would add a deeper dimension of the Bangalore link to the British terror plots and the use of India's IT capital as a safe haven for recruiting highly qualified youth to carry out terror acts.
A team led by city Deputy Commissioner of police (Crime) S.R. Ravikante Gowda went to the house of Sabeel and Kafeel in Banashankari, a middle-class locality here, in the afternoon to question the family members.
Gowda and his team, including a policewoman, had interrogated the parents and sister of Sabeel and Kafeel for over two hours Thursday night.
Police now say that Kafeel, who drove the jeep that exploded at the Glasgow airport entrance last week, was the elder brother of Sabeel, who has been detained in Liverpool in connection with the incident.
Sabeel's mother Zakhia Ahmed who had initially insisted that the Kafeel involved in the Glasgow incident was not her son now says the photos splashed by the media are that of her son.
Police also confirmed that Kafeel, a mechanical engineering graduate from a college in Davangere in Karnataka, had told his parents last week that he was working on an important project, had to present papers and would not be in touch with them for at least a week.
He had also told them that his last paper presentation attempt had failed and that his work will start in Britain and extend to some other countries also.
This message is being analysed to see whether it gives any clues to the other foiled terror plots, such as the gasoline-laden Mercedes Benz limousine that did not go off in London.
Zakhia Ahmed and her husband Maqbool Ahmed have taken the help of a lawyer, whose name is yet to be ascertained, as police interrogate them.
After Friday's questioning, the family left their Banashankari residence along with their lawyer without talking to media persons waiting there.
All the action is now around the Ahmed family in view of fresh leads emerging from Britain and Australia.
However, all was quiet at the house of Mohammad Haneef, another Bangalore doctor, who has been detained at Brisbane in connection with the plots.
His wife Firdous was calm and composed Friday, unlike Thursday when she reportedly collapsed after hearing that Haneef's detention had been extended till Monday.
Talking to the media, Firdous, who gave birth to a girl on June 26, said she was disappointed at the extension but asserted that, "even if the authorities hold him for another 15 days, they cannot find anything against him. He is innocent."