The Hindu : Front Page : Haneef to land in Bangalore today

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Sunday, Jul 29, 2007
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Haneef to land in Bangalore today

Karnataka Bureau

Our long wait is over, says family

Prime Minister, Ministers thanked

Relatives and friends congratulate family

BANGALORE: “We are looking forward to see him on Sunday and will greet him together at my bhabhi’s house in BTM Layout. We are all very happy, especially my mother,” Mohammed Shuaib, brother of Mohammed Haneef, tol d The Hindu on Saturday.

The family members have been in a jubilant mood ever since news emerged of Dr. Haneef release from detention following the collapse of the Australian Government’s case against him.

“Our neighbours have been very supportive all through the bad times that we went through. We are thankful to them and also to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed,” he said.

Faith intact

Asserting that the family still had faith in the system, Mr. Shuaib, an engineering student, said that was because the family always knew that Dr. Haneef, who was incarcerated for 27 days, was innocent. “My brother was innocent and there was nothing that could be used against him and we thank Allah for bringing us out of this turmoil,” he said.

Asked why Dr. Haneef’s lawyer Peter Russo was flying with Dr. Haneef to Bangalore, Mr. Shuaib said he had no idea about that. “We only want my brother’s work visa cancellation to be revoked. Otherwise, it will be a setback to his career,” he added.

At the BTM Layout residence of Dr. Haneef’s father-in-law, Ashfaq Ahmed, the mood was no less ecstatic. Relatives and friends thronged the house to congratulate the family and to share with them their moments of joy. Ateeq Ahmed, cousin of Dr. Haneef’s wife Firdous Arshiya, said the family was eagerly waiting for Sunday. “Our long wait is over now and we are waiting to see him. We will have a dawat after his arrival,” he said.

Meanwhile, speculations were rife amongst media persons here about Dr. Haneef’s time of arrival in the wake of lack of information emerging from Australia. Dr. Haneef, who boarded a Thai Airways flight from Brisbane at 12.25 a.m. (local time) on Sunday, is expected to reach Bangkok at 6.25 a.m. (local time) after nine hours of travel. But it was not immediately clear whether he would take the connecting Thai Airways flight to Bangalore, scheduled to leave Bangkok at 7.30 p.m. (local time).

An earlier Thai Airways flight to Chennai leaves the Bangkok international airport at 11 a.m. (local time) to reach its destination at 12.45 p.m. (IST). There was also an Indian Airlines flight scheduled to depart from the Thai capital at 7.20 a.m. (local time) to reach Chennai at 9.05 a.m. (IST). But there was every possibility for Dr. Haneef to miss this flight if he and the accompanying team arrive in Bangkok after 7 a.m. (local time).

Questioning

The Bangalore police will question Dr. Haneef after he comes to Bangalore. A senior police official said that they would question Dr. Haneef on certain issues in due course and not immediately upon his arrival. “We have already completed enquiries into his antecedents and have found nothing suspicious about him. He will be questioned mainly to ascertain the issues on which he was interrogated by the Australian police and the methods they followed,” the official said.

Dr. Haneef’s questioning will be basically an “academic pursuit” and not a serious police interrogation, he added.

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