The Hindu : Front Page : Was car-bomb designed in Bangalore?

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Sunday, Jul 08, 2007
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Was car-bomb designed in Bangalore?

Praveen Swami

Online records show Kafeel researched bomb-making on the eve of departure

Kafeel Ahmed

NEW DELHI: Kafeel Ahmed, the engineer from Bangalore who crashed a car-bomb into the Glasgow airport terminal with only limited success on June 30, began researching bomb-making techniques just weeks before travelling to the United Kingdom on May 5 to complete his doctoral work, intelligence sources told The Hindu.

Records of Ahmed’s online activity establish that he had extensively researched bomb design in March, the sources said. Soon after travelling to the U.K., he acquired the components used to assemble the explosive devices fitted inside two Mercedes-Benz cars that were intended to explode in central London last month. A similar device, using cellphone-activated detonators and propane cylinders, was used in the Glasgow attack. If the investigators have got it right, these findings suggest that Ahmed acted without training or material assistance from major terrorist groups. Police in Bangalore have so far found no link between Ahmed and major terrorist groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat ul-Mujahideen. Nor have counter-terrorism authorities in the U.K. found evidence that the Glasgow cell was linked to Al-Qaeda’s top command structure.

Ahmed went to the U.K. to complete his doctoral work in computation fluid dynamics – the study of the movement of fluids and gases over complex structures, like aircraft. He had a Master of Philosophy degree in aeronautical engineering from Belfast’s Queen’s University. But his doctoral work was delayed as he refused to take a study loan on the ground that it was against his religious principles.

Investigators believe that Ahmed, and Bilal Abdullah, the second man in the Glasgow airport car-bomb incident, planned the attacks after they attended Islamist gatherings in Cambridge, U.K. Having trained in Iraq, Abdullah worked in Cambridge between 2001 and 2004. He is thought to have known Ahmed’s brother, Sabeel Ahmed, a Liverpool-based doctor who has also been arrested.

Police in Bangalore expect to have the opportunity eventually to question Ahmed on his links in the city if he survives. Although he suffered 90 per cent burns after his jeep crashed into protective barriers at the Glasgow airport, experts say there is still a small chance he could survive his injuries. Ahmed was moved from a critical care facility at the Royal Alexandra Hospital to the Glasgow Infirmary’s specialist burns unit on Friday.

So far investigators have found nothing specific to suggest that Ahmed was linked to any terror groups in Bangalore. However, his connections in the local Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis, a neoconservative religious faction from which the Lashkar draws much of its cadre, have opened the possibility that he may have information to offer on the terror group’s networks in Bangalore.

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