London, July 5
A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist Internet chat site, media reported today.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang at the home of Younis Tsouli (23) Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London was told yesterday.

The three “cyber terrorists” - Tariq Daou, Tsouli and Waseem Mughal, are facing lengthy jail sentences after admitting using the Internet to spread al-Qaeda propaganda, inciting Muslims to a violent holy war and to murdering non-believers.

They are the first defendants in Britain to be convicted of inciting terrorist murder on the Internet. One message read: “We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America. The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy,” The Daily Telegraph reported.

This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida. Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, the report said.

However, part of the inquiry into the London and Glasgow incidents will focus on whether al-Qaeda has recruited doctors because they are less likely to attract suspicion and can move around the western world.

The three had close links with al-Qaeda in Iraq, believed they had to fight jihad or holy war against a global conspiracy to wipe out Islam and waged “cyber-jihad” on websites run from their bedrooms.

Tsouli, along with Tariq Daour, a biochemistry, student, and Waseem Mughal, a law student, were intelligent computer literate men who promoted violent propaganda.

21-year-old Daour of Bayswater, west London, who was born in the UAE, yesterday admitted inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism, wholly or partly outside Britain.

Moroccan-born Tsouli (23) of Shepherd’s Bush, west London, and British-born Mughal (24) of Chatham, Kent, admitted the same charge on Monday. They admitted to conspiring together and with others to defraud banks and credit card companies.

Daour had instructions for making explosives and poisons, the court was told. Police found instructions on causing an explosive with “rocket propellant” and constructing a car bomb.

London, July 5
Kafeel Ahmed, another Indian doctor, has been identified as the driver of the Jeep Cherokee that rammed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport last week.

With this, the worldwide web of family and professional connections between the alleged car bomb plotters is emerging.

Three of the eight suspects, detained for interrogation, are members of the same family from Bangalore while the families of another two were old friends in the West Asia. Several of them had shared homes in Britain. All except one were doctors in the National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.

Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, who was in the passenger seat of the Cherokee, had become close to 27-year old Kafeel Ahmed while working in the hospital. With 90 per cent burns on his body, Abdulla is now close to death in Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

Abdulla had worked at the hospital for 11 months while Ahmed worked for three months only. They also shared a rented house in Houston, five minutes from Glasgow airport.

Further evidence of the close-knit nature of the suspects came with the police swoop on a car in Liverpool on Saturday night.

The driver was Dr Sabeel Ahmed (26) who worked at the Warrington and Halton hospitals in Cheshire . Sabeel is brother of Kafeel Ahmed.

The brothers studied medicine at Rajiv Gandhi University in the city of Bangalore. Last night, Channel Four news claimed that Sabeel Ahmed visited a brother in Cambridge in 2005 when Abdulla and Asha lived in the city.

Dr Mohammed Haneef (27) who was arrested in Brisbane, is a cousin of the Ahmed brothers. He also received his medical degree from the same university in 2002, after studying as part of an affirmative action programme for Muslims and lower castes.

He worked as a locum at Halton Hospital at the same time as Sabeel Ahmed. There are two other unnamed suspects under arrest who worked at the Paisley hospital and would, almost certainly, have known their colleagues in the jeep. — UNI

Melbourne, July 5
Life for Indian doctor Mohammed Asif Ali, who was released yesterday by the Australian Police after being held in connection with the failed UK terror attacks, will not be the same anymore.

Ali, according to police, made an “unfortunate acquaintance” in his friendship with fellow doctor and compatriot Mohamed Haneef, also arrested in connection with the terror plot, and ended up almost being branded a terrorist by a section of the media.

The 26-year-old doctor, who arrived in Australia six months ago, has had his world turned upside down in the past 48 hours, simply because he agreed to mind some things for Haneef.

Ali was lying low yesterday, as media waited outside his apartment, which is just two blocks from the Gold Coast Hospital, where he worked.

When mediapersons managed to get Ali on his mobile phone, he begged to be left alone, saying he was extremely tired and just wanted to sleep. “I don’t know anything,” he said. The manager of his apartment block said the doctor was “petrified” after his ordeal.

Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty had said Ali had not committed any crime, and was free to go about his business. After the ordeal, Queensland Government offered Ali support. Premier Peter Beattie suggested it could be difficult for Ali to return to work.

“Bearing in mind the amount of media focus on this and the attention on the hospital, Queensland Health will need to talk to him about whether this is an appropriate place for him to practice,” Beattie said yesterday. — PTI

Islamabad, July 5
India today handed over cheques of one million Pakistani rupees each to the kin of 34 Pakistani passengers killed in Samjhauta Express bomb explosions in February this year.

At a special ceremony held on the premises of Indian High Commission here, high commissioner Satyabrata Pal handed over the cheques to 29 relatives of 34 Pakistani passengers.

Rana Shaukat, who lost his five children in the tragic incident, received cheques to the tune of 4.5 million Pakistani rupees. Indian Railways had already paid a provisional compensation of Rs 50,000 immediately after the tragedy.

Sixty-nine passengers were killed in the bomb blasts that occurred on the train when it was on its way from Delhi to Lahore.

The Indian High Commission has identified legal heirs for 34 passengers.

Addressing the relatives of the victims, Pal said, “What terrorists took from you can never be replaced… I want you to know that investigative agencies in India are doing everything possible to track them (terrorists) down.” He said India would seek Pakistan’s cooperation if investigations revealed the involvement of any Pakistanis in the tragedy. — PTI

The government has updated the Supreme Court on the release of six more missing persons, saying they had safely returned to their homes, but Justice Javed Iqbal asserted that the court would punish those responsible for their illegal detainment.

“It is not enough to say that such and such persons have been released. The persons or departments responsible for lifting persons and then confining them will be penalised,” said Justice Iqbal heading a two-member bench, along with Justice Falak Sher.

The court has been aggressively following the missing persons case initiated by the disgraced Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry that is being cited as major reason for his removal by evoking ire of President Musharraf and his secret agencies. DAG Tariq Khokhar submitted a report to the bench stating that the six persons who had been traced and released were Mast Ali, Mangal Qaisrani, Imran Ali Naqvi, Mumtaz Hassan, Khalid Khawaja and Khalid Sadique.