The Hindu : Front Page : New angles being probed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 09, 2007
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New angles being probed

K.V. Subramanya and Sharath S. Srivatsa

Did Bilal visit Bangalore?

Police probing whether the Ahmeds knew of IISc attack
Bilal might have helped the Ahmeds migrate to the U.K.

BANGALORE: Widening the probe into the antecedents of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, the brothers linked to the Glasgow terror attack, the Karnataka police are investigating their links with Bilal Abdullah, a British doctor of Iraqi origin.

The police are also probing whether the siblings had advance information of the Lashkar-e-Taiba attack on the Indian Institute of Science here in December 2005.

Top police officials told The Hindu that they were trying to find out whether Kafeel and his family were in touch with Dr. Abdullah during the last 12 years. Dr. Maqbool Ahmed, the father of Kafeel and Sabeel, was learnt to have tau ght medicine in West Asia, and this phase of the family’s life was under investigation now.

Even after returning to India in 1994, Dr. Maqbool Ahmed could have maintained contact with Dr. Abdullah, who might have helped the brothers to migrate to the United Kingdom. “The probe will encompass all issues, including whether Dr. Maqbool Ahmed sought Dr. Bilal Abdullah’s help to send his children to the U.K.,” sources said.

The Bangalore police were also investigating if Dr. Abdullah came here to visit the family. They have sought the help of the Bangalore Central Regional Transport Office (RTO) to ascertain if a driving licence was issued to Dr. Abdullah. However, the RTO officials denied having issued the same, and said it might have been fabricated.

Sources said the police were probing the origin and circulation of some provocative compact discs, seized from the Ahmeds’ residence here. The discs featured documentaries on the plight of the people in regions such as Bosnia and Chechnya.

The Cyber Crime police are trying to find out if any information was stored in the hard disc of the computer seized from the residence the two brothers in Banashankari, 2nd Stage here.

The police are trying to find out if the brothers had any inkling of the attack on the Indian Institute of Science on December 28, 2005.

A meeting of top officials, including Inspector-General K.R. Srinivasan and Bangalore Police Commissioner N. Achyut Rao, discussed the possibility of the brothers having prior information about the attack. If they knew about the attack or had any links with the perpetrators, it would establish their connection with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to have carried out the attack.

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