Two Indian doctors detained in connection with last week’s terrorist plots are
distant cousins who studied medicine together in the southern Indian city of
Bangalore and used to visit each other’s homes, The Times has learnt.
Mohammed Haneef, the doctor detained in Australia, also left his mobile
phone’s SIM card with Sabeel Ahmed, the physician detained in Liverpool,
when he left Britain in 2006, according to relatives.
Dr Haneef’s younger brother, Mohammed Shoaib, told The Times that they were
related to Dr Ahmed through their mother, who is the niece of Dr Ahmed’s
father.
The two men both began studying at the Ambedkar Medical College in 1998,
although Dr Ahmed did not graduate until 2003, a year later than Dr Haneef,
because he had to repeat a year.
Relatives said they used to visit each others’ homes in Bangalore
occasionally, but denied that they became roommates after moving to Britain
to work in the NHS.
Of the family relationship between the doctors in Australia and Liverpool, Mr
Shoaib said: "They were not that close. They never worked or lived
together in the UK."
However, other relatives said that Dr Haneef left his British mobile phone’s
SIM card with Dr Ahmed when he left Britain last year to take a job at the
Gold Coast Hospital in Queensland, Australia.
The latest link in the web of suspects came as the national terror threat
level was tonight reduced from critical to severe, which was the level
before last week's incidents, with Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, stating
that there was now "no intelligence" that an attack is expected
imminently.
Earlier, the
Prime Minister announced an urgent review of NHS recruitment after it
emerged that all of those arrested were either doctors or in related medical
jobs.
Detectives continue to question six people held at Paddington Green police
station in Central London. Five men, including Dr Haneef and Mr Ahmed, have
links to the health service either as doctors or trainee doctors, while the
sixth person, a woman, is a laboratory researcher.
Another doctor is being quizzed by officers in Australia while the eighth
person remains in a critical condition in hospital in Glasgow with severe
burns.
The families of Dr Haneef and Sabeel Ahmed -- both from Bangalore’s relatively
affluent middle class - protested their innocence today, denying that they
had any link to radical Islamist groups.
Worshippers at the mosque in Liverpool attended by Mr Ahmed, 26, also defended
him, describing him as a peace-loving young man looking for a wife.
Dr Haneef’s relatives and neighbours said he was a good Muslim who prayed five
times a day, wore a short beard, observed festivals and went to the mosque.
But he also enjoyed Hindi music and films, encouraged his wife and sister to
study and work, and loved living and working in the West, they added.
"He’s very innocent, humble and respectable - such a good person you
cannot imagine," said his younger sister, Sumayya.
"I am confident that he will be released with his dignity and honour
intact." She said that he had moved to Britain in March 2004 to do his
locums at the Halton Hospital near Liverpool.
While working there, he lived with other foreign doctors, including several
Indians, in a shared house they nicknamed the "haveli" - meaning
palace or large house in Hindi.
He spoke regularly with his family in India, but rarely discussed his friends
or colleagues and never appeared to be depressed, disillusioned or angry,
relatives said.
When he began work as a Senior House Officer at the Royal Liverpool Hospital,
he moved into hospital accommodation, they said. He came back to Bangalore
in November 2005 to get married, and returned to Britain with his wife.
His wife moved with him to Australia last year, but returned to Bangalore in
March so she could be with her family for the birth to her first child, who
was delivered on June 26.
Dr Haneef was planning to take a Singapore Airlines flight from Brisbane via
Kuala Lumpur to Bangalore on Tuesday to see his baby girl for the first
time, his relatives said.
They said he bought a single ticket because he wanted to obtain a passport for
his child and return to Australia with his family.
Dr Ahmed's mother, Zakia, told reporters in Bangalore that she had spoken with
her son by telephone briefly on Tuesday and that he was "keeping well".
"Both these boys are just caught in between," she said.
Worshippers at Mr Ahmed's mosque in Liverpool echoed her sentiments. One, a
general practitioner, who asked to remain anonymous, said the suspect had
been attending for over a year. "He would never do this kind of
terrorist action. He came here to pray," he said. "We are asking
God to release him as soon as possible and clear his name."
Meanwhile, Mr Brown told the House of Commons today in his first Question Time
as Prime Minister that there would be an "immediate review" of NHS
recruitment in light of the fact that all the suspects were doctors or
employed in the medical profession.
The Prime Minister added that background checks on skilled migrant workers
would be expanded, as would the worldwide "watch list" of
potential terrorists to help warn other countries.
Tonight, announcing that the national threat level had been reduced from
critical to severe, the Home Secretary, said: "There is no intelligence
to suggest that an attack is expected imminently."
However, she added: "The reduction of the threat level to severe does not
mean the overall threat has gone away - there remains a serious and real
threat against the United Kingdom and I would again ask that the public
remain vigilant."
Yesterday Canon Andrew White, a British cleric working in Baghdad, claimed an
alleged al-Qaeda leader from Iraq gave him a chilling warning of the
attacks.
Canon White told The Times that the terror leader warned him that his group
was planning an attack, and said: 'those who cure you will kill you,' in an
apparent reference to the NHS link.
Time limits: questioning suspects
Police can hold the six suspects, five men and one woman, at Paddington Green
until the weekend. Then they either have to charge them, let them go or
apply to a magistrate to hold them for another seven days.
When that week comes to an end if they want to hold them further, up to a
maximum of 28 days, they have to apply to a High Court judge.
For the suspect seriously ill in hospital under police guard it is not clear
if police will have to release him after 28 days, even if they have not been
able to question him.
Mr Rao is absolutely right. The world has judged these 2 indian doctors far too quickly!! i have worked with them, and they were very decent, conscientious , kind & extremely helpful & considerate chaps. I am confident that they will come out innocent from all this.
One thing i would like to say is that all the other newspapers have been accusing these chaps as though they are guilty, with no proof whatsover, & deliberately missing out vital info such as: on the reason for the one-way ticket & opinions of family & friends. This includes the bbc & sky news!! however, the times has given a very fair coverage of these events, and has given an adequate balance of both sides, with less accusing remarks & hence, I'd like to congratulate jeremy page & russell jenkins for saying things as they are.
raania, Liverpool, UK
Dr. Mulay is wrong to apologize on behalf of Indians or Indian Doctors. The fact that the Press bleats on about these doctors being "Indian" only serves to create a problem where none exists. The fact remains that the common thread with all of these terrorists is that they are Muslim and the only "nation" they belong to is the muslim "Ummah".
They are not "misguided" ,rather they hew to a literal reading of the Koran, where the world is divided into the Dal ul Islam and the Dar ul Harb. The Dar ul Harb is the region of the world where Islam is not dominant and is considered to be "fair game" for any violent action without remorse
I am amused by the efforts of the British Press to also label Omar Saeed ( who was behind Daniel Pearl's abduction) as a "Briton", without mentioning his Pakistani muslim background.
As long as we don't understand what makes these terrorist tick, we will be consistently subjecting the wrong people and the wrong religions to needless profiling.
Dr Ambu Arasan, Webster, NY
Iam an indian .For me Its very painful to hear that indian doctors could get involved in something like this.But what is more frightening is the paranoia that is being whipped up
in england in the aftermath of this incident.
Entire indian community is being looked at suspiciously.
This will affect the indian doctors in NHS very badly.
I understand the btish public's feeling ,because we in INDIA
ALSO GO beeserk when a terrorist incident happens in our country.
I URGE THE BRITISH PUBLIC NOT TO GET PARANOID ABOUT INDIANS IN GENERAL,just because two indian MUSLIMS TURNED OUT TO BE TERRORISTS.
ARAVIND, bangalore, india
The 2 indian doctors are innocent. I have worked with them. They are really nice people. There must be some trapping somewhere!
rob, Liverpool, UK
They are not Indian but Australian. If you want to add indians to the terrorist list then go ahead and add another one billion.
James, Bristol, UK
It is shocking and shameful how quickly everyone has judged the two doctors arrested in Australia. There isn't a shred of evidence that they were in any way responsible for terrorism. And yet words like 'associated with', 'linked to' or 'visited' are being used in a loaded way as if to suggest guilt. Even the one-way ticket is mentioned as if it proved the intention to flee.
Despite the revulsion we feel at the attempted attacks, it does not justify a witch hunt. Branding people guilty before the case against them is proved serves no purpose least of all that of the system that the terrorists were trying to attack.
If these two young doctors from India are proven guilty then yes, lets throw them in jail. But if they are shown to be innocent then are we prepared to say sorry, offer compensation and do everything in our power to rehabilitate them from the ordeal of the terror that the system has inflicted on them and their families?
Jammi Rao, Walsall,
It is more disgraceful to see Dr. P Mulay for being so apologetic for being an Indian. Hindus have nothing to do with such acts and no apology is needed from a Hindu. Fanatic muslims don't belong to any nation and everyone knows it very well.
Pasand, Pune, India
It seems radical Islamic fundamentalist suicide bombers have been duped by their clerics. They have been promised 72 virgins if the blowup the infidels, however the 72 virgins all have fathers and brothers who are sworn to protect them from any wrongdoing by the laws in their holy books. Which all points to one hell of a fight up in heaven where protective Islamic relatives of young women are fighting martyrs of Islamic fundamentalism. Anyone for bible class?
Michael Levy, Ft Lauderdale, USA
These fanatics are not yokels.. they know the system and how to work it. They know to establish a blemish free personna prior to any criminal act will be an advantage and good alibi if they do get caught.. as these few have. we are the naiive ones!
e yap, kondon, UK
Sadly the connection in the vast majority of terrorist plots throughout the world is Islamic terrorism.
Whatever their nationality all those being accused are Muslims.
The fact that they come from India should not be suprising.
I doubt this will do any damage to India's reputation or to that of Indian doctors.
Indian doctors have served the NHS with distinction for 60 years.
Ofcourse as yet none of the suspects have been proven guilty in any court of law.
Roger, London, UK
I genuinely hope Indian muslims are cleared. It will be a sad day when they are implicated. Implication of Indian muslims will have far reaching consequences for security in India, as well as community relations within India. As it is distrust of muslims in India is at a peak..
Kara Swart, Kolkata, India
In response to R's comments below:
As an Indian, I am not sure we can avoid newspaper reports referring to the two doctors as 'Indians'. We don't flinch at Azeem Premji (CEO of Wipro) or Zaheer Khan/ Irfan Pathan (cricketers) being called only Indian, and we should not now with these doctors
The fact that they are Muslims is important, but in some ways immaterial - let us hope that these two doctors turn out to be innocent. Let us also recognise that Indian Muslims abroad have kept their separate identity vis-a-vis their religious brethren from other countries, and have been rarely involved in subversive activities so far
SK, London,
As reported by The times about the two Indian doctors arrested and being questioned one has to remember that they are being questioned and until something is proved are not guilty. Of course it is a shame if they are in anyway involved in such heinous activities, but equally demoralising if criticised so blatantly and then found innocent. Remember there is a history in this country of innocent civilians being shot dead while investigating terrorist activities. So please before condemning overseas doctors who have been serving the NHS for decades await further information. Those who have really involved in the crime should never be pardoned, but again remember one Shipman did not represent the whole medical community, we are here to serve to our best.
A Doctor, Town, UK
The Muslim doctors follow in the footsteps of their Nazi predecessors Mengele, Brandt, and other Naiz war criminals . Although trained physicians they became fanatical murderes. The Muslim world has other Dr. Habash and Dr. Zawahiri
siegfried buchwalte, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
The more accurate term to refer to these individuals is "Muslim Indians" not "Indians". They have no loyalty or feelings for India other than the desire to oppress it and convert it. They are using the reputation of non-Muslim Indian doctors to subvert Great Britain and India.
This incident should be an eye-opener to die-hard liberals in the West who believe Islamic terrorists are somehow victims of poverty and autocracy. The reality is that today's Islam is an ideological movement that must be confronted by unity among non-Muslims and unabashed exposition of the hatred propagated in the Koran.
SB, Boston, USA/India
What is the Hippocratic oath that they follow to heal and save lives? They then would rather destroy lives of those unknown to them?
Potter, leamington spa, UK
Lack of true understanding contributes to wrong view.
To view our misery is caused by others or removal of something we hate would end our misery is dead wrong.
If it is wrong here how can it be right in heaven or whatever?
Boldwoin, kuching, sarawak
The persons responsible should be quoted as Indian Muslims rather Indian because in India also most of the terrorist activities are done by muslims extremists and they remain aliented from rest of India.
R, london,
Disgraceful. How disgraceful. We Indians have to hang our heads in shame at this now. Will my patients trust me, and believe me that I am not like these imbeciles who believe in killing innocents.
I want to reassure the British public that we Indians are peace loving people and its the Islamic community who doesnot come out and condemn this who is responsible.
The Indian National Congress who has always believed in encouraging casteism and divide and rule policy, is to blame why India is also falling in the hands of people who are deranged to support people who carry out terrorist attacks.
Mumbai has experienced terrorist attacks on the exact same scale as London new york, and the elements who have caused this are deranged Islamic students- SIMI- Student Islamic Movement of India. This organisation is supported by pakistan and the certain people from Dubai.
I apologise profusely to the British public, as we Indians are to be blamed for this. I reassure you all we are not like them.
Dr P Mulay, Wadebridge Cornwall,
It is not simple to understand but it is worth thinking.
Any one who gives Releigon more importance than own life,
own country and other releigon can be brain washed to become terrorist. I feel that the on should not deferantiate or give any support to releigous institutions, and treat every one having one releigon ie Humanitarianism. Releigon should be considered personal thing and it should be egnored at all frounds. I mean one should not give any importance to any one releigon.
k b shahi, pontefract, uk