UK Indian is among terror suspects

LONDON: The son of an Indian immigrant is among the 24 people who were detained by the British police on Thursday in connection with the foiled plot to blow up 10 US-bound airplanes.

Seventeen-year-old Abdul Patel, the youngest among the detained, is the son of Mohammed Patel, who came to the UK from Gujarat and settled in Walthamstow, east London, where he worked as a mechanic.

Abdul Patel is one of the 19 suspects who were named and whose assets were frozen by the Bank of England. Scotland Yard believes that one of the other arrested men, whose name was not revealed, is the head of the Al Qaeda in the UK. He was described as a senior figure in a British terror network and the mastermind behind the foiled plot and other atrocities in the past.

Patel was expelled from school when he was 15 for bunking classes. Friends said he had changed in the last two to three years, turning into a temperamental youth from a carefree boy. The turnaround came after his father went to Iraq on a Muslim aid mission and never returned.

“He used to come over and help us carry out repairs in our home, but in less than a year he turned 180 degrees, became introverted and had a temper all the time,” said a neighbour. Patel had taken to dressing in traditional Muslim attire and become religious, but he recently switched back to Western clothes.

Meanwhile, the British Home Secretary said four major terrorist attacks against the country had been prevented since the 7/7 bombings last year, but the threat level remains high.

Without giving details of the plots, Reid said the government believed that the first Al Qaeda plot in the UK was in 2000 in Birmingham, preceding the war in Iraq and the 9/11 bombings. He added that the police were currently carrying out 24 terror investigations.