The driver detained during the attempted terrorist bombing at Glasgow Airport is unlikely to survive the severe burns he sustained in the incident, a doctor who treated him said yesterday.
Kafeel Ahmed, 27, who was wrestled to the ground by police after setting himself on fire in the June 30 attack, is still officially in a "critical condition" at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley.
However, one of the medical team who has treated him said yesterday his condition was "beyond repair". Speaking anonymously to a reporter from the AP news agency, the doctor said: "The prognosis is not good and he is not likely to survive. He has third-degree burns over most of his torso and limbs. It is beyond repair and because he has lost so much skin, he is now vulnerable to infection and won't be able to fight it."
The would-be suicide bomber allegedly crashed a Jeep Cherokee into the airport, a day after police found two unexploded car bombs in central London. It emerged yesterday that the Indian terrorist suspect worked as an aeronautical engineer at a company contracted by some of the world's biggest airlines, including Boeing and Airbus, potentially giving him access to sensitive information.
Mr Ahmed worked in Bangalore as an engineer for Infotech Enterprises, a large outsourcing firm, from December 2005 to August 2006, said a company spokesman. He was arrested along with his brother, Sabeel Ahmed, 26, who is being held in Liverpool, and six other suspects detained in the terror plot. A third Indian man, Mohammed Haneef, is being held in Australia.
Australian police widened their part of the terrorist investigation to India yesterday, confirming they had sent an officer to Mr Haneef's family home in Bangalore.
The 27-year-old Indian was arrested on July 2 as he tried to leave the eastern Australian city of Brisbane for India on a one-way ticket. Federal police have been given extended time to detain the suspect for questioning without pressing charges, but yesterday admitted they may have to apply for a further extension, given the complexity of the case and the man-hours involved in assessing the evidence.
Mr Haneef's detention sparked criticism that Australia's new counter-terror laws have left him in indefinite legal limbo, and his lawyer said he would challenge it.
Meanwhile, in India, an imam told yesterday how the Ahmed brothers turned away from mainstream Islam and became more radicalised.
Mohammed Hassaan said the two boys had turned from being young professionals and observant Muslims who attended his Bangalore mosque after they moved to Britain. When they returned to India, they attended a more radical mosque, cutting themselves off from their more moderate Muslim upbringing, the imam of the Khudadaad Mosque said.
The brothers had chosen "a different mosque a different school of thought," he added.
Mr Hassaan said the Ahmed brothers' father had spoken to him sadly of his sons' turn towards a more militant form of Islam. "Who can say how or why they changed, but they were different," he said.
The news of the detentions has been a rude jolt in the Ahmeds' quiet Bangalore neighbourhood. Photographers and television crews have been parked in front of their home around the clock.
"The media has hounded and harassed this family," said BT Venkatesh, a human rights lawyer helping the Ahmed family. "They are simple and religious people and they have no idea what is going on."
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