Bangalore, July 9
The Bangalore connection in the UK terror plot today grew bigger with the city police announcing that it was examining a hard disc recovered from the alleged Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed even as the state home minister announced there was “conclusive evidence” to prove the complicity of Dr Mohammed Haneef, another relative of the Ahmed brothers, in the bombings.

City police commissioner N. Achyuta Rao said here today that the police had seized a hard disc of Kafeel’s computer and some other material left behind by him before leaving for the UK. Though the commissioner refused to disclose the contents of the hard disc and the other material, sources here said the disc revealed Kafeel’s involvement in radical activities. He is said to have sent a lot of hate mail against the United States after the US strike in Iraq. He has apparently logged on sites reviling US President George W. Bush and hailing the Al-Qaida.

The commissioner said the special team, looking into the case, was also investigating whether there were any links between the failed UK terror plot and the attack on the IISc in December, 2005. He said the questioning of family members was still on.

The police is investigating if the trio had any links in Bangalore and if any terrorist “sleeper cells” were already functioning in the city. He said there was no certainty whether Bilal Abdullah, the main accused in the bombings, had visited the country.

The police claimed that no arrests had been made so far in the case here and that there was nothing to be “disclosed”. However sources said a call centre employee and a doctor, who had associations with Kafeel, and few other persons who had participated in a march organised in September, 2005, to protest against Danish news daily, which had carried caricatures of Prophet Mohammed had also been questioned.

Meanwhile home minister M. P. Prakash said there was conclusive evidence that Dr Mohammed Haneef, a cousin of the Ahmed brothers, was indirectly involved in the UK 

terror plot. This is a significant development, considering the fact that Haneef’s family has been all along claiming that he had become embroiled in the investigation because he had handed over his SIM card to his cousin Dr Sabeel Ahmed.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka government decided to hold a high-level meeting tomorrow to take stock of the situation in the case.

The Chief Minister said the special team, investigating the Bangalore link to the UK bombings, had been successful in gathering some evidence. He, however, said the evidence could not be disclosed.