Indian security agencies have learnt of Dr. Sabeel Ahmed (35), a key suspect arrested after the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, being detained in Saudi Arabia. However, according to a central intelligence source, Indian authorities are verifying the news from their Saudi counterparts as well as discreet channels and have even sought his identity particulars to match with the available records on him. The source added that once his identity is confirmed, Indian authorities would seek Ahmed’s deportation as he is accused of recruiting several Indian youths for Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The news of Ahmed’s detention comes days after a lookout circular for him was issued to the Indian airports. A non-bailable warrant against Ahmed still remains pending. Saudi Arabia has deported several terror suspects to India in the past after ascertaining the evidence and confirming their identity, including key 26/11 Mumbai attacks’ plotter and LeT operative Zabiudin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in 2012. Last February, the National Investigation Agency had confirmed Ahmed’s alleged role in a 2012 plot to recruit Indian youths to work for LeT.
In June this year, Delhi police’s special cell had filed a chargesheet against 17 alleged operatives of AQIS, including Ahmed who was absconding along with 11 others. India’s counter-terror agencies listed Ahmed in their ‘wanted list’ after his elder brother Kafeel, a PhD in engineering, died of injuries while allegedly carrying out a car bombing at the Glasgow airport in June 2007.
Another AQIS recruiter Abdul Rehman, one of the accused named in Delhi police’s chargesheet and arrested later, had claimed of allegedly meeting Ahmed or “Doctor saab” at Al-Khubar house in Dammam of Saudi Arabia in October 2012 and February 2015.
“According to Rehman, when he met Ahmed in 2012, he had confessed to working for both LeT and Al-Qaeda. Ahmed had also asked him to send unemployed youths to Pakistan for terror training and avenging acts of injustice,” said the source.
