The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Renewed probe into IISc. attack hits dead end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Renewed probe into IISc. attack hits dead end

K.V. Subramanya

Arrest of Glasgow attack suspects rekindled hopes of breakthrough

LeT suspected to be behind attack on IISc.
No link found between the two terror modules

BANGALORE: Investigations into the terrorist strike on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), which were renewed after the failed bombing attempts in London and Glasgow, have again hit a dead end. The Bangalore police have not found any tangible evidence to link the two terror modules that executed the IISc. attack on December 28, 2005 and the attempted London bombing on June 29, 2007 and the Glasgow attack the next day.

As the 18-month-long investigations into the IISc. attack had not yielded any result, the police had almost given up hope of tracing the culprits. But their hopes were rekindled after it transpired that three Bangloreans were connected with the London and Glasgow attempts.

While Kafeel Ahmed of Bangalore drove the flaming jeep into the Glasgow airport, his younger brother Sabeel Ahmed and his cousin, Mohammed Haneef, were arrested in U.K. and Australia respectively for their suspected role in the attacks.

Sifting through data

The police went through the data stored in a high-capacity hard disk seized from Kafeel’s Banashankari house here. Besides, they verified whether Kafeel’s photograph matched that of the computer-generated portrait of the suspected IISc. shooter, as Kafeel was in Bangalore when the attack took place.

According to highly placed sources in the police, they have not found even “a bit of information” that could link Kafeel, Sabeel and Haneef to the terrorist module that carried out the IISc. attack. The hard disk does not contain any information linking Kafeel with any terrorist module or group, the sources told The Hindu.

No link

As there was no evidence to link the two modules, we did not even question the seven suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives who were arrested soon after the IISc. incident to find out whether they knew anything about Kafeel or the Glasgow terror module, the sources said.

According to the police, the LeT was behind the IISc. shooting incident in which a scientist was killed and four persons were injured. The seven suspected LeT operatives, who are now in Bangalore Central Prison, were arrested on the charge of planning acts of sabotage and not in connection with the IISc. incident.

Strikingly different

The sources said the two attacks were strikingly different. In the IISc. case, the terrorists escaped after opening fire with an AK-47 assault rifle and hurling Chinese-made grenades. But, the Glasgow one was a suicide attack where Kafeel drove an explosives-laden jeep into the airport building, the sources said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka