The Hindu : National : Mistaken identity: Haneef’s father-in-law

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Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Mistaken identity: Haneef’s father-in-law

and Raghava M.

BANGALORE: Afshaq Ahmed, father-in-law of Mohammed Haneef, who has been detained in Brisbane for his suspected role in the U.K. terror attack, claimed that his son-in-law was innocent. “The SIM card that my son-in-law gave to his friend while leaving England has landed him in the police net,” he said.

Mr. Ahmed, who is into transport business and is a resident of BTM Layout in the city, told The Hindu on Tuesday night that Mr. Haneef was a quiet person. “Sometimes, I could have been aggressive, but I have never heard him raise his voice,” he noted.

He said Mr. Haneef left England some eight months back to take up medical profession in Gold Coast Hospital in the state of Queensland in Australia.

While leaving Glasgow, Haneef handed over the SIM card that he had been using to one of his friends. “Just because the user of the SIM card accidentally received a call on his cell made by one of the perpetrators of the attack, the user, as well as the original owner [Mr. Haneef] has been detained by the police,” Mr. Ahmed rued.

The suspicion might have grown stronger as Mr. Haneef had bought a “one-way” ticket to India from Australia. Mr. Ahmed said his son-in-law was on his way to see his eight-day-old baby on Monday.

“Since he intended to take his wife and the baby, he wanted to get the baby a passport. As such, he did not buy a return ticket, leading the Australian authorities to believe that he was fleeing Australia,” Mr. Ahmed noted.

He was detained at the airport while Mr. Haneef was about to board the flight to India, he added.

The mood inside the sprawling duplex house of Mr. Ahmed was not cheerful. The inmates, including Mr. Haneef’s wife Firdose, her younger sister, their mother and Firdose’s younger brother all seemed tense.

Mr. Ahmed said everything is left to the will of the Almighty while he would try his best to get relief for his son-in-law.

Mr. Ahmed said Mr. Haneef’s aged mother stayed in Benson Town in the City while another brother and sister too stayed in Bangalore.

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