With the key links in the botched UK terror plot being traced to the silicon city Bangalore this year, the global image of the IT hub received a major setback.
BANGALORE: With the key links in the botched UK terror plot being traced to the silicon city Bangalore this year, the global image of the IT hub received a major setback.
Kafeel, who rammed the explosive-laden jeep into the Glasgow airport, his younger brother Sabeel and his cousin Haneef were arrested by the UK and Australian Federal police respectively for "knowing about the plot". The three happened to be Bangaloreans.
The hi-tech city was again in the limelight when the two persons arrested in connection with August 25 blasts in Hyderabad were subjected to narco tests for two days here.
The duo were suspected to be the aides of Bangladeshi national Mohammad Sharifuddin alias Hamza, the mastermind behind the twin blasts.
In the case of UK "terror links", the family members of Kafeel, Sabeel and Haneef were put under the scanner by the police. They maintained they had no knowledge about the terror plot and insisted that their sons could not be involved in the failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
Thanks to the government's intervention, Kafeel's cousin Mohammad Haneef was exonerated of terrorism charges and released by the Australian police after being in their custody for almost four weeks. The federal court in Australia has now restored Haneef's visa and he can return to that country.
Kafeel came to Britain in 2001 and entered Queen's university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to study aeronautical engineering. He then attended Angila Ruskin University in Chelmsford, England for post-graduate work on tactile technology to help visually impaired.
He was described by colleagues as a conscientious student who kept to himself.
The only information that the Ahmeds had was that Kafeel was working on a confidential project on global warming, but they had no clues about the project.
Initially, the Ahmeds could not acknowledge Kafeel as their son who was battling for his life in a London hospital, having suffered ninety per cent burns.
The middle class neighbourhood of the Ahmeds could only say that the family was "well-respected and their sons had a good conduct, except they were introverts".
This refrain was still doing the rounds when two high capacity hard discs were seized from the Ahmeds' residence which contained inflammatory material on Jehad and Islamic fundamentalism, but no information about the plot.
Kafeel's body, claimed by his family from the Glasgow infirmary almost two months after his death, was ultimately buried in Glasgow.
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