By IANS
Bangalore : In the wake of "conclusive evidence" on the Bangalore link to the British terror plots, Karnataka Monday said it would revamp its anti-terrorist cell and intelligence gathering machinery.
Home Minister M.P. Prakash for the first time confirmed that he had been given information by state police regarding "conclusive evidence" that Kafeel Ahmed, an engineer from here, was the man who drove a blazing jeep into the Glasgow airport June 30.
Three highly educated Bangaloreans – Kafeel, his doctor brother Sabeel Ahmed, and their cousin Mohammad Haneef – are among prime suspects in the British plots.
On Haneef's involvement, who has been detained by Australian police, the home minister indicated that he was involved indirectly. He described him as a "misguided youth".
Prakash said the anti-terrorism cell and intelligence gathering would be overhauled and the cyber crime department strengthened.
Bangalore Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao has also stated that his department had submitted a proposal to the government on the need to strengthen the anti-terrorist cell with trained personnel, equip them with modern gadgets and continuously upgrade their skills in view of the sophisticated methods the terror networks use.
The state government had promised to strengthen intelligence network in December 2005 when the city witnessed its first major terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). A retired professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, who had come to attend a seminar, lost his life in the attack by a lone gunman.
But nothing much has happened since then, said senior Karnataka police officials who did not want to be named.
They now hope that the present coalition government will realise the urgency of the matter and act before political uncertainty steps in, as the chief ministership will pass to the Bharatiya Janata Party from Janata Dal (Secular) in less than three months.
Posting in the state intelligence wing in Karnataka is considered a punishment, as it is not 'lucrative'.
Overstaying foreigners are a weak area. The media keeps reporting about 100 foreigners, especially Pakistanis, overstaying in Karnataka. Police officials acknowledge the phenomenon but contest the number.
Police say it is very difficult to detect those who overstay from the subcontinent because of the similarity in physical appearance and the reluctance of locals to report on such people to police.
The Bangalore airport is another porous area in the sense there have been several cases in the past year of people flying out with fake passports or tampered visas.