By Neena Bhandari and Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS
Sydney/London : No charges have been laid against the five Indian doctors – who have been released after interrogation by the Australian Federal Police – or Mohammad Haneef, who is still in police custody in Brisbane following the failed terror plot in Britain. In London, one of the eight arrested has been charged with conspiracy while others are being quizzed.
Police have released all the five Indian doctors in Western Australia and Sydney after they were interrogated about possible links to the foiled bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
Haneef, arrested on July 2 at Brisbane airport while leaving for India, remains in police custody in that city.
Australian Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock has not ruled out the five doctors being questioned again following the examination of more than 30,000 documents, computer files and mobile phones seized by the police.
Ruddock told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "If this is all a mistake, some lives are going to be turned upside down, but if we fail to pursue these matters, we will be held accountable. You are dealing with people's lives…a presumption of innocence exists in every police inquiry."
Authorities seem to be more confident of an international conspiracy in the failed bomb attacks last weekend. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said, "Links to the UK are becoming more concrete".
It has emerged that the Ahmed brothers – Kafeel (also known as Khalid) and Sabeel from Bangalore – had applied for jobs with the Queensland health department last year, but were declined because of insufficient inexperience.
Meanwhile, Gold Coast Hospital's management is hoping that 26-year-old Mohammed Asif Ali, the other doctor arrested in Brisbane and later released, will return to work.
Queensland state health minister Stephen Robertson said: "He's shown himself to be a good doctor and very popular. We want him back because we need his work."
According to Australian media reports, Ruddock has said he would once again ask the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to investigate whether the Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir should be listed as a terrorist group.
The group is said to have links with one of the central figures in the alleged British terrorist cell, Iraqi diabetes specialist doctor Bilal Abdullah.
In London, meanwhile, Abdullah, who was one of the two men arrested following the car bomb attack at Glasgow airport, has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions.
Abdullah is the first of the eight arrested for the attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow to be charged.
Abdullah and Kafeel Ahmed were the two occupants of the blazing jeep that rammed into Glasgow airport.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service in Britain, Abdullah was being charged under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act. It carries a maximum sentence of life.
The charge, which covers a period from Jan 1 to July 1 this year, alleges that Abdullah "unlawfully and maliciously conspired with others to cause explosions of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom".
Susan Hemming, head of the CPS Counter Terrorism Division, said: "I have now made the decision that there is sufficient evidence and authorised the charging of Bilal Abdullah with conspiracy to cause explosions following incidents in London and Glasgow on 29 June 2007 and 30 June 2007.
"Other individuals arrested by the police in connection with the bomb attacks remain in custody pending a charging decision."
On Saturday, the BBC showed dramatic footage of the burning jeep crashing into the Glasgow airport terminal building. Passengers were heard expressing their shock as police dragged Kafeel – his clothes burnt off and hair scorched – away from the wrecked Jeep.
Kafeel, who suffered 90 percent burns in the car blaze, was Friday transferred to a specialist burns unit. New details emerged of his student days in the Queen's University of Belfast, from where he completed a Masters in aeronautical engineering in 2003.
The Northern Ireland police are investigating Kafeel's time in Belfast, where he spent three years as a student. Jamal Iweida of the Belfast Islamic Centre told the media that he knew Kafeel and was shocked at what had happened.
He said: "I knew Kafeel for about two years while he was staying in Belfast as a postgraduate student at Queen's University. My memories of Kafeel are of a very pleasant and calm person, a very intellectual person, very friendly and sociable in fact."
Kafeel and Sabeel's parents and sister in Bangalore remained hidden from the media Saturday. Family lawyer Mohammed Javed told reporters that the condition of the father – Maqbool Ahmed, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease – had worsened due to the ordeal.
Javed recounted to the media that Kafeel had telephoned his mother June 30 and had said he was working on a "confidential project on global warming". He had also asked her to pray for his success, Javed said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that police and the security service had made rapid progress in the case. "From what I know, we are getting to the bottom of this cell that has been responsible for what is happening.
"Now of course it's got to go to court, police have got to continue their investigation, but I want people to know that we have acted very quickly, the authorities have acted very quickly, to deal with potential future incidents."