Kafeel's mother feared he was on wrong path [Waah-Waah from London bomber's mother.]

The Times of India ^ | 9 July, 2007 | The Times of India

[CarrotAndStick]

Investigators working on the Bangalore connection to the UK terror plot have come across a startling disclosure: alleged Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed's mother Dr Zakia Khan seemed to be aware of his fanatical inclinations and tried to stop him.

Investigators quoted her as saying: "I suspected him to be taking the wrong path, but had no idea exactly what he was up to. I still can't imagine he did something of this magnitude."

But the 28-year-old aeronautical engineer's alleged suicide attack was not a bolt from the blue for his family. Not only did the radicalisation of Kafeel and his brother, Sabeel, happen in their living room, Kafeel's earlier actions and thoughts often led to altercations within the family with Zakia reportedly blaming her husband, Dr Maqbool Ahmed.

A member of radical group Jamaat-e-Islami, Maqbool is said to be a puritanical Muslim, which could have influenced Kafeel and Sabeel, the Bangalore-educated doctor also detained by the UK authorities for terror links.

Sources close to the family said the mother lived in fear of her sons being "trapped" by terror groups. As most of Kafeel's formative years were spent in the Middle-East, where the couple worked, there was every likelihood that the boys could have been influenced by radical forms of Islam, like the ultra-conservative Saudi Wahhabi school.

Zakia should have been relieved when Kafeel returned to Karnataka to pursue studies. But he soon went abroad for higher studies. Every time he returned home on short breaks, his words only compounded Zakia's fears.

Investigators said Zakia pleaded with Kafeel not to leave during his stay in Bangalore before he left for UK on May 5. She reportedly told him: "If you do something wrong, you won't be my son. Even Allah will not forgive you."

But he left. When the Bangalore connection to Glasgow bombings was first suspected, the family went into prayer mode, sources said. When Mohammed Haneef's name cropped up, Zakia prayed her sons were not involved. But when Sabeel's arrest was announced, the family knew deep down their worst nightmare was unfolding.

[CarrotAndStick]

 

    UK plot: Karnataka police hunt for 'sleeping cells

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July 09, 2007 19:32 IST

Bangalore Police is chasing various leads into the Bangalore connection with the UK terror plot, including the presence of any sleeping terrorist module in Karnataka and this city in particular.     

"We are probing various angles, including whether there were any sleeping modules, which means modules that are still not active," a top official told PTI on Monday.

The modus operandi of a terrorist outfit is to first set up 'sleeping' cells, which collect ground data, arrange for funds to execute the 'mission' and provide logistic support to the 'recruits' who have been deployed on a 'mission,' he said.

The work of a sleeping cell is often to arrange for funding and to provide all the local support required on the ground to enable them to carry out their carefully planned conspiracy. Such cells are 'activated' only when the 'mission' reaches its final stages of completion, he added.

"We are verifying and exploring the possibility of the presence of any such sleeping module," he said, reacting to reports that Mohammed Haneef, a suspect in the Glasgow foiled attack and detained in Australia, was a member of the 'sleeping cell' and handled the funding aspect of a terrorist outfit.

"We are not looking out for one outfit but are exploring the possibilities of other outfits as well," he said, refusing to reveal whether police had stumbled upon any such sleeping terrorist outfit in the state.

 

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[theDentist]

You’d think someone over in Parliament would propose making terrorism a hanging offense.