The Hindu : Front Page : Another doctor from Bangalore detained in Britain

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Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
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Another doctor from Bangalore detained in Britain

K.V. Subramanya and Sharath S. Srivatsa

BANGALORE: An Indian doctor detained in Liverpool, United Kingdom, for his suspected role in the Glasgow terror attack has been identified as Sabeel Ahmed, a Bangalorean. He is a cousin of Dr. Mohammed Haneef, detained in Brisbane, Australia, for the same reason.

While the Bangalore police maintained that they had no official word on his detention, Dr. Sabeel’s parents, Mustaq Ahmed and Zakia, who are also doctors, confirmed it on Wednesday. “Sabeel spoke to us on Tuesday and told us that he is in police custody,” Dr. Zakia, who works in the Bangalore Medical College, told The Hindu.

“The police are taking good care of me. I am in touch with my solicitors and will come out soon,” she quoted Dr. Sabeel as saying.

Though it was said another Bangalorean, Khalid Ahmed, believed to be an engineer, was also under detention in the U.K., the police did not confirm the claim.

The U.K. police were reported to be on the look-out for a Bangalorean by name Kafeel Ahmed.

Incidentally, Dr. Sabeel has a brother with the same name, although Dr. Zakia denied that Kafeel was detained.

Dr. Zakia said Dr. Sabeel and Dr. Haneef were second cousins, who had studied at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Medical College here. “Besides being cousins, they were very good friends. They used to meet regularly in the U.K.”

Following the detention of the two Bangaloreans, the police here have started investigations into their local connections. Intelligence wing sleuths on Wednesday visited the college and collected the marks card, the fitness certificate, the admission form and the Common Entrance Test form Dr. Haneef submitted at the time of admission. Police sources said teams had been sent to Moodigere in Chikmagalur district, hometown of Dr. Haneef, and his flat at Richards Town here, where his mother and siblings live.

The police were gathering information about his antecedents and activities, and relatives and friends with whom he maintained contact.

Praveen Swami reports from New Delhi:

The U.K. police are also investigating the possible involvement of a third Karnataka resident, Kafeel Ahmed.

A Glasgow-based postgraduate engineering student, Mr. Kafeel Ahmed was discovered by investigators to have been a close friend of Dr. Haneef and Dr. Sabeel. However, when the U.K. police sought to question him, they were told he was vacationing in Iceland.

Efforts to make contact with Mr. Kafeel Ahmed had so far been unsuccessful, a senior police source told The Hindu.

Monitoring manifests

Authorities in the U.K. and India are monitoring flight manifests, the source said, adding the police expected to know where he was within a day or two. “If Mr. Kafeel Ahmed does not surface, we may have to explore the possibility that the badly-burned man who drove into the Glasgow airport is in fact him,” the source said.

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