Hours before the failed United Kingdom terror plot on June 30, Kafeel Ahmed, who has been suspected of ramming the fire engulfed jeep to Glasgow airport, had called up his home in Bangalore and told his family that he was on a 'confidential project.'
"On June 30, Kafeel had a telephonic conversation with his mother Dr Zakia Ahmed and said he was on a confidential project on global warming. He also requested her to pray for his success," the family lawyer Mohammed Javed said in Bangalore on Saturday.
Quoting family members, Javed said Kafeel, who was doing Ph D in UK was in the city from last December to May five, the day he went back. During the brief stay, he worked for an engineering company in the city.
Kafeel's father Maqbool Ahmed is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and the entire family's trauma has been compounded after the arrest, he said.
Sabeel Ahmed, brother of Kafeel, who also has been arrested in Australia, had called up the family two days ago, he added.
A Daily Telegraph report quoting unnamed sources said the devices built by the bomb makers included high explosive as part of the detonator, which failed to go off.
Another suspect, who has also been arrested, had a page on a social networking internet site Orkut.com in which a series of messages had been left in the run-up to the attack by a user calling himself 'mujahid' (holy warrior).
On June 11, it read 'when is kafeel comin bk' and on June 15 'inshaallah things will hpn soon, ill pray 4 u.'
The last entry on June 25 read: 'everythins fine here by the grace of ALLAH, will ask shahid and let u knw in my next scrap (entry).' Shahid is a name, but also means 'martyr.'
According to the daily, evidence has emerged that the cell may also have planned attacks in Australia and the US.
According to the report, he told his family members 'I am involved in a large-scale confidential project. It is about global warming. I cannot reveal the details.'
'It involves a lot of traveling. I have to present a lot of papers at various places. The project has to be started in the United Kingdom. After starting it there, I will come back to Bangalore and continue it from here.'
'Various people from various countries are involved in this. There is an Indian with me and he is helping me out. He has given his car to me for travelling. During the project work in the UK, I will not be available by any means -- phone or internet -- for a week. So, please do not worry,' he had said.
Kafeel returned to India in August 2005, around the same time that Sabeel moved to Liverpool to work as a junior doctor.
Back in Bangalore, Kafeel worked with a technology company called Infotech as a senior designer, but quit after eight months, telling his family that he had taken up freelance work with a friend as a project manager in aircraft design.
Kafeel Ahmed, previously indentified as Khalid Ahmed, has a master of philosophy (M Phil) degree in aeronautical engineering and a doctorate in computational fluid dynamics, a highly specialized subject in which computers are used to simulate the flow of fluids and gases over complex structures, such as the outside of vehicles or aircraft.
The bombs recovered from London and Glasgow were of the same design, consisting of gas cylinders, petrol and detonators using mobile phones.
Two other suspects have also lived in Cambridge in recent years. Abdullah studied English there. Mohammed Asha, 26, a Jordanian neurosurgeon arrested while driving on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday evening, trained at the city's Addenbrooke's hospital.
