The Hindu : Front Page : Kafeel and Sabeel originally held Jordanian passports

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Friday, Jul 06, 2007
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Kafeel and Sabeel originally held Jordanian passports

K.V. Subramanya and Firoz Rozindar

The brothers left Bangalore for the United Kingdom in May; details of phone calls made being investigated

— Photo: Sampath Kumar. G.P.

Making a beeline: Newspersons gather in front of the house of Sabeel Ahmed, arrested for his suspected role in the Glasgow terror attack, in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE/DAVANGERE: Investigations by the Bangalore police have revealed that Kafeel Ahmed and his younger brother Sabeel, detained by the U.K. police for their suspected role in the Glasgow terror attack, originally held Jordanian passports.

Highly placed sources in the city police told The Hindu that the two spent their early years in Jordan as their parents, Maqbool Ahmed and Zakia Ahmed, worked as doctors there.

Doctor couple to be questioned

Though the siblings were Indian citizens, investigations were on to ascertain whether they were born in Jordan. The doctor couple would be questioned to investigate their antecedents.

The Ahmeds returned to India about 25 years ago. They live in Banashankari, an upper middle-class locality in south Bangalore.

Studious and pleasant

Kafeel passed his B.E. (Mechanical) from the UBDT Engineering College in Davangere in Karnataka in 2000. He scored 87 per cent and bagged the fourth rank in Kuvempu University. He was known as a studious and pleasant person.

“I cannot believe that a studious and decent student like Kafeel can in any way be involved in terrorist activities. He was always helpful and participated in all extracurricular activities,” said a friend, who was his junior and did not wish to be identified.

Principal (in-charge) Dr. B. Siddewswarpa, who was a faculty member during that period and had taught Kafeel, shared his opinion.After his M.Phil., Kafeel pursued a Ph.D. in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge.

He held the position of CFD engineer in the Department of Design and Technology.

The police questioned about a dozen persons known to Kafeel and Sabeel and gathered information about the activities of the two brothers who were in Bangalore in May, apparently on a personal visit. Kafeel left for the U.K. on May 5 and Sabeel on May 13. The sources said they were also investigating details of the phone calls they made.

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