Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Death on Wheels


Death on Wheels
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1
11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and India's financial capital. 209 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured in the attacks. According to the Indian police the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Students Islamic Movement of India.[1]

Pressure cookers with 2.5kg of RDX each [4], were placed on trains plying on the western line of the suburban ("local") train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST (12:54 UTC), and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18:35,[2] during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments (some compartments are reserved for women, called "ladies" compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali.[3][4]


Map showing the 'Western line' and blast locations.Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had "some" information an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known".[5] will

The bomb attacks in Mumbai came hours after a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, the largest city in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, Home Secretary V K Duggal said there was no link between the Srinagar and Mumbai bomb blasts.[6]


[edit] Injuries and fatalities
11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
Confirmed casualties Train Blast location Carriage type Time (IST) Deaths Injured Sources
Travelling north
from Churchgate Khar Road - Santacruz First Class 18:24
17:50 Fast Local
Churchgate-Borivali Bandra - Khar Road First Class 18:24
17:37 Slow Local
Churchgate-Borivali Jogeshwari (PF #1) First Class 18:25
17:54 Fast Local
Churchgate-Borivali Mahim Junction (PF #3) First Class 18:26
Travelling north
from Churchgate Mira Road - Bhayandar First Class 18:29
17:57 Fast Local
Churchgate-Virar Matunga Road - Mahim Junction First Class 18:30
17:37 Fast Local
Churchgate-Virar Borivali (PF #4)1 First Class 18:35
Total 11 minutes 209 714 [7]
1 One bomb exploded at this location, but another one was found by police and defused.[2]


Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil confirmed that a total of 200 people were killed and another 714 others have been injured.[8] Additionally, various news organisations have reported that at least 200 people have died and that more than 700 others have been injured.[9][10][11][12][13]

A week after the blasts in Mumbai the confirmed death toll rose to 207.[14]

In September of 2006 it was confirmed that the death toll had risen to 209.[15]


[edit] Response
11 July 2006
Mumbai Train Bombings


Articles
Reactions
Investigations
See also
Mumbai Suburban Railway
This box: view • talk • edit
A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai were placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network was at first shut down, although some trains resumed service later, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, were instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.[16]

The Prime Minister also held a security meeting at his residence attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and Home Secretary V K Duggal.[17]


[edit] Resumption of services and return to normality
Western Railway services were restored on 11 July by 10.45 pm.[18] As a show of investor confidence, the Mumbai Stock Exchange rebounded, starting the day with the BSE Sensex Index up by nearly 1% in morning trade. Foreign investors also retained confidence, with the Sensex up almost 3% at 10,930.09 at the end of the day's trade.


[edit] Rescue and relief operations
Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the heavy rains and the prevalent monsoon flooding, but quickly took momentum after fellow passengers and bystanders helped victims to reach waiting ambulances and/or provided first aid.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced ex-gratia payments of Rs 1,00,000 (approx. US$2,200) to the next of kin of those who died in the explosion. The injured would be given Rs 50,000 (approx. US$1,100) each.[6]
Indian Railways announced Rs 5,00,000 (approx. US$10,000) compensation and a job to the next of kin of those killed in the serial blasts in Mumbai. The announcements were made by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after visiting those injured in the blasts at a hospital in Mumbai.[19]
However a study commissioned by former MP Kirit Somaiya noted that that only 174 of the 1,077 victims had received compensation through the Railway Claims Tribunal. For the handicapped victims, only 15 out of 235 eligible cases had been taken care of. Regarding the Prime Minister's promise to India concerning the rehabilitation of the victims, L. K. Advani noted:

“ none of the above mentioned assurances has been fulfiled to any degree of satisfaction[20] ”


[edit] Sources of information
Due to the mobile phone networks being jammed, news channels such as NDTV ran tickertapes with information of injured individuals as well as SMS messages from those who wish to contact their families.[21] Reports indicated that at around 18:00 UTC on 11 July (midnight in Mumbai), the phone networks were restoring service; telephone service was completely restored during the night.

Mumbai Help, a blog run by around thirty bloggers, was a useful source of information, especially for those outside India.


[edit] Impact

[edit] Heightened security measures
In wake of the blasts, the Indian government tightened security in railway stations. Under new restrictions passed by the Ministry of Railways, non-passengers would no longer be allowed on the railway platforms after July 2006. Other major security steps include installation of close circuit televisions inside the stations for round-the-clock vigil and installation of metal detectors.[22]


[edit] Setback for the India-Pakistan peace process
Following the bomb attacks, Minister of State of External Affairs E. Ahamed announced on 14 July that India would suspend the talks with Pakistan until President Pervez Musharraf abides by his 2004 promise of ending all support to cross-border terrorism.[23] However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conveyed India's willingness to be flexible with Pakistan following Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's statements that ending the three-year long peace process would signal a victory for the separatist terrorists.[24]

On 16 September at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana Cuba, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf made a joint statement announcing that the two countries would resume formal peace negotiations and set up a joint agency to tackle terrorism.[25]


[edit] Statements in response
Main article: Statements in response to the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
Various senior political figures from India and around the world condemned the attacks. In India, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was quick to call for calm in Mumbai, while President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and president of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi also issued statements regarding the bombings in Mumbai. Officials from other nations offered their condolences to those affected by the bombings. Officials from Pakistan, which has long feuded with India, and the United Kingdom, which was the target of similar attacks the previous July, were among those who denounced the attacks in Mumbai as well as terrorism as a whole. Several terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba and al-Qaeda, made comments — both in condemnation and condonation — about the attacks as well.


[edit] Memorial service
A memorial service was held in Mumbai on 18 July at 6:25 pm local time — exactly one week after the blasts. President APJ Abdul Kalam, his hand raised to his forehead in salute, led the two-minute silence as people lit candles and placed wreaths at Mahim station, one of the seven places on the suburban rail network hit by bombs. Sirens sounded across Mumbai marking the memorial service. People gathered at the site of the blasts, in railway stations on the city's Western Line and millions of people stopped talking, traffic came to a halt and cinemas interrupted films as a city that never stops observed a silence for bombing victims.


[edit] Investigation
Image:Cooker Bombs 16Oct06.jpg [5]

Main article: Mumbai serial train blasts investigations
Some 350 people were detained 36 hours after the incident in Maharashtra - police claim that these are people rounded up for investigations.[26] On 14 July, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a terrorist organisation possibly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an e-mail to an Indian TV channel, the outfit says it organised the bombings using 16 people who are all "safe". According to the e-mail, the main motive seems to have been a retaliation to the situation in the Gujrat and Kashmir regions, possibly referring to the alleged oppression of Muslim minorities in certain parts of the region. It also says that the blasts were part of a series of attacks aimed at other sites such as the Mumbai international airport, Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort in New Delhi. The authorities are investigating this claim and are trying to track the location of the e-mail sender.[27] However, on 17 July, the forensic science laboratory Mumbai has confirmed the use of a mixture of the highly explosive RDX and Ammonium Nitrate for the bombings. The presence of these explosives in the post explosive debris was confirmed by modern techniques such as Liquid Chromatography with mass detector (LCMS), Gas Chromatography with mass detector (GCMS) and Ion Scan Chromatography. They have indicated a strong possibility of all explosives being planted at the Churchgate railway station, which was the starting point for all affected trains.[28]

Initially, religious extremists from the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India terrorist groups, and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI were the prime suspects.[29][30] Both Lashkar and SIMI denied responsibility for the bombings.[31][32] There was also evidence about the involvement of the international Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda following a phone call from a man claiming to be a spokesperson for the group on 13 July. The alleged al-Qaeda spokesman had said the blasts were a "consequence of Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims."[33]

On September 30, 2006 CNN reported that "The Indian government accused Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, of planning the July 11 Mumbai train bombings that killed 209 people".[34]


[edit] Arrests
On 21 July 2006 police arrested three people suspected to be involved in the bombings.[35] Police have detained more than 300 suspects since 18 July but these are the first arrests in the case.[36] Two of the men were detained on Thursday in the northern state of Bihar and the third later in Mumbai.[37][38] All three are said to belong to the banned SIMI organisation. On the same day, Abdul Karim Tunda was arrested in Kenya on suspicions of involvement in the train bombings.[39] He is one of India's most wanted men and also a suspected organizer for the banned Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba.[40]


[edit] Forced Confessions
In late 2006, all the seven key accused in the Mumbai train blasts in July retracted their alleged confession to the police, saying they were illegally forced to sign blank papers, an Indian TV channel reported.[6][7] The forced confessions, extracted apparently by torture, were later used by the Indian government to implicate Pakistan.

It should be noted that this implication was of importance to the investigation.


[edit] Investigation updates
The Indian National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has said that India doesn't have "clinching" evidence of the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI in the Mumbai train blasts of July 11.

"I would hesitate to say we have clinching evidence but we have pretty good evidence," he was quoted as saying on CNN-IBN.

Following Narayanan's remarks, the Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal on Monday characterised the evidence as "very good [...] it is fairly solid evidence,".

[8]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_July_2006_Mumbai_train_bombings

7/11 Mumbai Train Bomb Blasts Remembered

I was at my shop unaware of the bomb blasts , later we came to know and I posted an article from a Msn story , there was total chaos, I closed shop came home was watching the blood curdling images on TV when at about 10 pm I carried my camera and rushed to the Bandra station blast site close to my home, it was really bad, the eerie atmosphere , the pain that collectively hit all of us in the gut . From Bandra I took a cab , but the cops had stopped all traffic at St Micheals Church, so I walked through Mori Road shot the Mahim Blasts.
From Mahim tired drenched in my sweat, watched suspiciously by the cops and my Bandra Samachar Press Card like a talisman , I thanked my patron Saint Clarence Gomes who gave me this card..of his paper.
From Mahim I walked to Matunga , which was really bad damage done to the trains, here the cops caught me but let me go, I shot several frames, took a cab home at 2.30 am.Washed rushed to Bhabha Hospital , was not allowed to shoot pictures here , met Mr Baba Siddiqui local MLA than came to my shop and posted these pictures on Buzznet and Bloggerspot..
This one photo shoot I will never forget nor will the brave citizens of Mumbai..
The Mumbaikar even the migrant Mumbaikar stood his ground fearless , death did not scare him, next morning he wasback commuting by train to his place of work.. this is my new series.
I copy an article of CNN to give you proper facts as reported by them...on that inauspicious day


At least 174 killed in Indian train blasts
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; Posted: 10:12 p.m. EDT (02:12 GMT)

Prime minister says 'terrorists' behind attacks


MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- A series of seven explosions killed at least 174 people on crowded commuter trains and stations Tuesday evening in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, police said.

Officials said at least 464 people were injured in the blasts in the city's western suburbs as commuters made their way home. All seven blasts came within an 11-minute span, between 6:24 and 6:35 p.m. (12:54 and 1:05 p.m. GMT).

Analysts are comparing the attack with the mass transit bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London last year, saying they all involved a series of mutiple blasts and were well-coordinated.

There was some confusion about the number of dead and injured as information was compiled from hospitals and explosion sites in Mumbai, the west Indian seaport previously called Bombay.

"There still are bodies being recovered," said Pooja Saxena, with the International Federation of the Red Cross, speaking early Wednesday.

CNN-IBN correspondent Jency Jacob was aboard one of the trains during the attacks.

"People started running helter-skelter and started jumping from the train," Jacob said. (Watch rescuers pull victims from wrecked trains -- 1:59)

"When I jumped from the train, I saw that the first-class compartment was totally ripped apart and people were hanging from the train. There are some people who were thrown out from the train and they were lying on the track, bleeding completely." (Read a full account of the horror Jacob witnessed)

One person was arrested in New Delhi in police raids after the explosions, reported CNN-IBN, CNN's sister network, but there's been no claim of responsibility for the attacks.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged calm and said the attacks were "shocking and cowardly attempts to spread a feeling of fear and terror."

"I reiterate our commitment to fighting terror in all its forms," he said in a written statement.

U.S. officials said suspicion fell on two Islamic terrorist groups whose focus has been on the disputed territory of Kashmir -- Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Both groups have been implicated in attacks that involved coordinated bombings during peak times in India, the officials said.

It may be no coincidence that the attacks occurred just ahead of the Group of Eight summit of world leaders that begins Saturday in St. Petersburg, Russia, said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security for the Asia-Pacific Foundation.

Last year's July 7 terror bombings in London that killed 52 people came as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was hosting the G8 summit in Scotland and one day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, Gohel told CNN International.

Both the 2005 London bombings and the 2004 Madrid bombings, that killed 191 people, were directed against rush hour commuters on mass transit systems.

"This time again, they're (terrorists) trying to show that they are live, active. They want attention, they want the focus," Gohel said. "It was a coordinated, multiple, simultaneous mass casualty atrocity. This is the hallmark of a powerful transnational group."

Gohel noted that at least one of Tuesday's attacks targeted a first-class commuter car, and police were looking at that carriage to see if it might yield clues. The names of those aboard would have been known beforehand -- as opposed to regular computers.

Dana Dillon, a senior policy analyst in the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, said if Indians believed a Pakistani militant group was behind the bombings, it could disrupt two and a half years of dialogue between the countries that has led to a de-escalation of troops and other positive moves.

"If this terrorist attack messes that up, it could be catastrophic to the region," Dillon said.

'Limbs lying everywhere'
The blasts hit trains or platforms at the Khar, Mahim, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Borivili and Bhayander stations. The seventh explosion struck a train between the Khar and Santacruz stations, a police official told CNN-IBN.

Police also found and defused another bomb at the Borivili station, according to CNN-IBN. (Train map)

Video footage from a train station showed people in bloodstained clothes receiving medical treatment, while others were carrying victims and some lying motionless near railroad tracks. Windows of a train appeared to be spattered with blood.

At least one train was split in half.

Jacob said after his train was attacked he moved toward the back of the train where he "could see some explosives, some pipes that were falling down. The police were investigating that. It seems to be that the explosive was packed off in pipes and kept in the first class men's compartment."

A CNN-IBN correspondent who was on one of the trains said it was leaving a station when the blast occurred. People jumped and were killed as the train hit them.

"Limbs [are] lying everywhere, bodies [were] cleared from the tracks by local business owners who rushed from their shops," the correspondent said.

Another CNN-IBN correspondent reported seeing 15 bodies at the Matunga station.

People living almost two miles (three kilometers) away from the Borivili station said they heard the blast.

The Western Railway system -- which 4.5 million people use daily -- was shut down and Mumbai's subway system put on high alert after the blasts. Police in the capital of New Delhi also heightened security.

Airports across India were put on high alert, too.

Blasts appear to follow terrorist pattern
U.S. officials said the blasts followed a pattern of initiated by the two main Islamic Kashmiri separatist terrorist groups.

Kashmiri separatists were blamed for twin car-bombings that killed 53 people in Mumbai in August 2003 as well as an attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi in 2001.

In March 1993, more than 250 people were killed when at least 13 bombs were detonated around Mumbai. That attack followed a wave of fighting between India's Hindu and Muslim communities.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf strongly condemned the attacks, and a statement released by his country's Foreign Ministry called them a "despicable act of terrorism."

"Terrorism is the bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively," the statement said.

Earlier Tuesday, a grenade attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least four people. Authorities suspect militants are responsible for that attack on a minibus in Srinagar. There was no immediate indication of a connection to the Mumbai blasts.

Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the government had some advance knowledge that such an attack might take place. "What we didn't have was the place and the time," Patil said.

www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/11/mumbai.blasts/

The Shia Sunni Divide

dressed in red both on a crest
watching each other abreast
the sunni in his sunday best
the shia bleeding on chehlum
his faith at the Imams behest
such is a divide of a crescent
shia sunni a hornets nest
muslims killing muslims
the rest of the muslims no rest
none are willing to get it off their chest
the israelis are happy
including the people in the west
our ulemas watch
divide and rule
this Islamic contest
eunuched silence
cacopohonic impotentcy
no one wants to protest
one allah one rasool
one koran
one mecca one medina
one karbala
allah ho akbar
both sides equally stressed
not trying to search for
peaceful solutions
both sides equally possessed
allah gets hurt
in this unholy quest
shia and sunnis
wealth of his treasure chest.
live and let live
our childrens future reinvest
with our congenital hate
let us not this world infest

Allah Ho


Allah Ho
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1
a few coins they throw
turn their sanctimonious
pious ass on our face
with a spiritual halo
this is how charity
from their miserly pockets flow
from the very word go
a thought we as beggars
readers of mind
smoothly seamlessly know
Alah Ho
Allah Ho
Hindu Muslim
Sikh Isai
Sab ka Bhala Ho
Cahaye tum
Hum ko Bhula Do

Who is a better Muslim ?

Who is a better Muslim ?
He who says namaz
Carries a Koran
A tasbih
In hand
The other hand
Carrying an AK47
With which he kills another Muslim .
For a misguided spiritual whim
The other Muslims impotently quiet
Eunuched silence
A jehadi they call him .
In their eyes he is a better Muslim
Turning the house of God
Into a terror den
This bigoted misguided Muslim
Jamati Doctors that do surgery
With truck laden bombs
Tarnish the name of a Muslim
The situation horrendously grim
Islam hijacked by Mullahs
In Lal Masjid filled with Hate
To the brim..
Drowning little kids
Who they were teaching
To spiritually swim
A fabulous religion
Islam
Of Brotherhood and Peace
In the hands of a rotten Muslim

photo courtesy google images


Kafeel Ahmed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Kafeel Ahmed, aka Khalid Ahmed and Khaled Ahmad, (b. Jan 1 1979)[1] was born and raised in Bangalore, India[2] and is an Indian[2] engineer who was studying for a PhD in computational fluid dynamics. He is often mistakenly referred to as a doctor. He was arrested in Great Britain in the aftermath of the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack. He is held hospitalized at Royal Alexandra Hospital in critical condition, after he suffered severe burns in the attack. He has suffered burns to 90% of his body, and is not expected to survive—he has already been revived twice as of July 4.[3]. The Sun reports Britain's National Health Service is paying over 5,000 pounds a day to keep him alive, while security sources say this amounts reaches 30,000 pounds when security costs are included. [4]

Kafeel is the brother of Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, also arrested in the aftermath of the attack.[2]A suicide note left behind indicates that the passenger of the vehicle, Bilal Abdullah, and himself, intended to die in the attack.[5]

According to police sources, he is an engineer pursuing a Ph.D. in computational fluid dynamics at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, in the UK, on the topic of "Computational Approach to Ink-jet Printing of Tactile Maps." He would have earned a bachelor of mechanical engineering from India, and an M.Phil. degree in aeronautical engineering from Queen's University Belfast.[6] He might have been in the UK as early as September 2003. He is believed to have organized a Chechnya Day Meeting in his native city of Bangalore, back in February 2006.[7]

He was a member of the Tablighi Jamaat missionary sect.[8]

There are indications that Kafeel Ahmed and Bilal Abdullah were behind the 2007 London car bombs plot


Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, the puritanical Bangalore brothers accused of involvement in the failed London and Glasgow bombings, had hardly spent a decade of their lives in India, sources said today. Both spent their formative years in Saudi Arabia.

Their parents, Dr Zakia and Dr Maqbool Ahmed, lived in Iran from 1979 to 1983, a period when their sons were born. Zakia did travel to India for childbirth on each occasion, though.

Later, in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war, the family left for Saudi Arabia and stayed there a further 11 years till 1994. When they returned to Bangalore, Kafeel and Sabeel would have been 14 and 13.

Kafeel left for the UK just seven years later, in 2001, and Sabeel followed him a couple of years on.
www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2616759

Who is a good Muslim?

TV picture: Dr Kafeel Ahmed
photo courtesy

Daiji world.com

Dr Haneef's uncle Dr Kafeel Ahmed Most Suspected in Glasgow Blast Plot

ABC Online

Jul 6: AMA Gold Coast terrorism suspect Mohammed Haneef is the nephew of two of the bombing suspects being held in Britain, his family has confirmed.

Dr Haneef's uncle, Dr Kafeel Ahmed, is one of the two men alleged to have driven a car full of gas cyclinders into the airport terminal at Glasgow.

He was badly burned in the attack and is still being treated in a Scottish hospital.

Dr Ahmed's brother, Sabeel, is alleged to have coordinated the plot and was arrested in Liverpool, England.

It has also been revealed the Ahmed brothers had applied to work in Western Australia.

Late last night a Brisbane magistrate gave the Australian Federal Police another 96 hours to question Dr Haneef over possible links to the UK plot.

A police spokesman says investigators are still analysing 18,000 files on Dr Haneef's laptop, and are being assisted by a counter-terrorism expert from Scotland Yard who arrived in Australia yesterday.

University of Queensland terrorism researcher Andreas Scholoenhardt says there are a number of legal options.

He says Dr Haneef may be extradited to the UK or may be charged in Australia.

Dr Haneef has been been offered a lawyer and is now receiving legal advice.


Dr Kafeel - File photo

Another seven people are being held by British authorities over the attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has thanked Australia for its help with the investigation into the British bomb plot.

Prime Minister John Howard discussed the international terrorism threat with his British counterpart in a 20-minute phone call late yesterday.

Both leaders agreed their police forces had performed well in the current investigation into failed car bombs in London and Glasgow.

Please pray for us, says Kafeel’s mother

Afshan Yasmeen - for The Hindu

BANGALORE, Jul 6: “I only hope it is not my son. It was a different person who left Bangalore on May 5…” This is what Dr. Zakia Ahmed, mother of Kafeel Ahmed, told The Hindu on Thursday over telephone.

“But going by all that is being shown on television, it looks like it is him. Allah! What have I done to face such distress in my life? Please pray for us,” Dr. Zakia said. This was even as TV channels were beginning to confirm the identity of the driver of the car bomb in the terror attack at Glasgow last week.

Locked inside their residence, the family members were besieged by mediapersons and camera crew for most of the day.

On Wednesday too, the media camped out before the well-kept home in an upper middle-class locality in Banashankari following reports that their younger son, Sabeel Ahmed, had been detained by authorities in the United Kingdom. The doctor couple willingly spoke to the media.

But it was a different story on Thursday when news emerged of their older son’s involvement in the terror plot.

The dignified mother, vociferous and articulate the day before, seemed to have crumbled under the pressure of the news that her son was in a critical condition with 90 per cent burns.

“Kafeel was a rank student and he had gone to the U.K. to pursue a Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Mujhe pata nahin kisne mere bachon ko gumrah kiya hai [I don’t know who led my children astray],” she said.

www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=35372&n_ti...'s%20uncle%20Dr%20Kafeel%20Ahmed%20Most%20Suspected%20in%20Glasgow%20Blast%20Plot


Times of India online reports :
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore_engineer_drove_flam...

TURNING DEADLIER: 1996 file photo of Kafeel Ahmed, the man who allegedly rammed a jeep into Glasgow airport on Saturday, June 30. Kafeel, now in a Glasgow hospital with 90 per cent burns, is the brother of Bangalore doctor Sabeel (TOI Photo)
LONDON/BANGALORE: The Bangalore connection to the British terror web appears to be turning deadlier by the day. Two days after the suspected role of two cousins Sabeel Ahmed and Haneef Muhammed, both from Bangalore, in the foiled car bombings in London hit headlines, it has now emerged that the man who drove the flaming jeep into Glasgow airport on Saturday is Sabeel’s elder brother Kafeel. Kafeel, an aeronautical engineer with a PhD from UK, is lying in hospital with 90% burns.

While police and security agencies in London were cagey about confirming the identity of the man they had pulled out of the flaming Jeep, sources in Bangalore confirmed that the man was, indeed, Sabeel’s brother Kafeel, and not someone by the name of Khalid Ahmed, named as the driver earlier by British cops.

Kafeel is also suspected to be the chief designer of the car bombs which were defused by London police in the crowded Haymarket (near Picadilly) area last week. He was a doctoral researcher at the Anglia Polytechnic University in the department of design and technology. His CV mentions him as the author of papers on aerodynamic designs, computer-aided modelling and fluid behaviour.

The third Indian in what is widely assumed now to be an al Qaeda-linked terror cell is Mohammad Haneef, a 27-year-old doctor arrested by Australian police this week from Brisbane. Haneef, a cousin of the Ahmed brothers, was in close touch with Sabeel. He was nabbed as he tried to board a flight with a one-way ticket for India via Malaysia. Haneef, Sabeel and Kafeel’s families have denied they have any terror links.

A British investigator, meanwhile, was questioning Haneef, who like Sabeel, studied medicine at Bangalore’s B R Ambedkar College. The two doctors had also worked together at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, Cheshire, until about six months back when Haneef moved to Queensland, Australia.

Reports said two of the suspects in the Glasgow attack rented a house just a few miles from the airport.

Special: Glasgow & the Indian connection Kafeel's mother feared he was on wrong path
10 Jul 2007, 0002 hrs IST , Rakesh Prakash , TNN



Kafeel's mother feared he was on wrong path
10 Jul 2007, 0002 hrs IST,Rakesh Prakash,TNN

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Kafeels_mother_feared_h...


BANGALORE: Investigators working on the Bangalore connection to the UK terror plot have come across a startling disclosure: alleged Glasgow bomber Kafeel Ahmed's mother Dr Zakia Khan seemed to be aware of his fanatical inclinations and tried to stop him.

Investigators quoted her as saying: "I suspected him to be taking the wrong path, but had no idea exactly what he was up to. I still can't imagine he did something of this magnitude."

But the 28-year-old aeronautical engineer's alleged suicide attack was not a bolt from the blue for his family. Not only did the radicalisation of Kafeel and his brother, Sabeel, happen in their living room, Kafeel's earlier actions and thoughts often led to altercations within the family with Zakia reportedly blaming her husband, Dr Maqbool Ahmed.

A member of radical group Jamaat-e-Islami, Maqbool is said to be a puritanical Muslim, which could have influenced Kafeel and Sabeel, the Bangalore-educated doctor also detained by the UK authorities for terror links.

Sources close to the family said the mother lived in fear of her sons being "trapped" by terror groups. As most of Kafeel's formative years were spent in the Middle-East, where the couple worked, there was every likelihood that the boys could have been influenced by radical forms of Islam, like the ultra-conservative Saudi Wahhabi school.

Zakia should have been relieved when Kafeel returned to Karnataka to pursue studies. But he soon went abroad for higher studies. Every time he returned home on short breaks, his words only compounded Zakia's fears.

Investigators said Zakia pleaded with Kafeel not to leave during his stay in Bangalore before he left for UK on May 5. She reportedly told him: "If you do something wrong, you won't be my son. Even Allah will not forgive you."

But he left. When the Bangalore connection to Glasgow bombings was first suspected, the family went into prayer mode, sources said. When Mohammed Haneef's name cropped up, Zakia prayed her sons were not involved. But when Sabeel's arrest was announced, the family knew deep down their worst nightmare was unfolding.
.......................................


These are random news in a world dry of news, the Lal Masjid and the failed Glasgow bombing hold sway...
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the Mumbai Train Blasts that I shot late in the night ,on that inauspicious day , a night that does not move away from the gallery of my lifes images.
After reading much of the news like you I ask myself who is a good Muslim?
Being a Jamati, Salafi, Wahhabi Ahle Hadeed, Shia Sunni is certainly not a crime.
Islam is time and again been mentioned as a Religion of Peace and Brotherhood.
Yet a few disgruntled lot with their rumblings divert the cause of Islam..almost singlehandedly giving it a big blow.Hurting all of us sane and secular minded Muslims.
So who is a good Muslim?
A guy at flickrs called me Anti -Islam, because I show through pictures the sad lot of deprived underprivilged Muslim women begging in the streets.
Another pompous lady used harsher words,almost making me laugh when she says oor lot of deprivation is because of rich western society.She calmly forgets the Arabs , the rich filthy sytem promoted by the Arabs to enslave other Muslims to work for them for peanuts, ill treat them..these are what I saw read and I worked as a slave labourer in Muscat Oman..
Anyway I digress, a good Muslim is he who follows the five pillars ,does all this wanted of him as a Muslim , keeps the peace with his neighbour and respects the laws of the country of his Birth..defends her honor in times of war..
Even if he is a Muslim in any country.
Live and let others live too.
So now all of a sudden the Islamic perspective has changed..hate has crept in disillusionment , the Cold War , all other historical events that are not part of this purview..Madrsaas sprouting everywhere , nothing wrong , only when they start dessiminating hate for man and the country f their Birth , than it becomes a dangerous situation..
Calling these radical elements misguided is not enough.
The entire Muslim society is to be blamed.
First it was Ignorance that made people commit crime goaded by wrong teachings of Hate.
Than came the Kafeels, as alleged .
The new breed of terror is the change of guard .. Enter the Metrosexual Terrorist .
Says a report in the Times of India
New Intelleigent Recruits use the latest Gizmos, steganography , "a method of hiding cryptic information in pictures or video images in a way that no one but the intended recipent willonly know there s a message..Steganography can be through video or any multi -media device.."
You can read the Times July10 2007 for more details Mumbai edition.

When a Muslim wavers from his basic foundations corrupted by rogue preachers ,societies the cancer has set in even an educated doctor mother can do nothing..Today this single incident condemns the teaching of the Jamatis of this particular Kafeel group atleast.This is not Islam that the Holy Prophet preaced or for which Imam Husain gave his head but not his hand to Yazid..
Terrorism is not new , silence stitched lips in Islam is not new, let them kill who cares is not new.. here my detractors will say I speak as a Shia , so be it I am not a a Wahhabi, Salafi , Ahle Hadeed or Ahle Yazeed, I am not a Shia or a Sunni or a Jammati.. I am a human being ..
Yes I am a Muslim .
At Karbala it was the same scenario , only the victims were given a very bad deal, I call it the Cartoons on the Sands of Karbala drawn in blood by Yazidiyat.
The Lal Masjid , all this only is a modernised concept of Yazidiyat. Allowed to be tolerated by Islamic Soceity.
We are payinfg for their sins.

KHWAJA MOINUDDIN CHISTI (RA)says:

He gave his head, but did not put his hand into the hands of Yazid. Verily, Husayn is the foundation of la ilaha illa Allah. Husayn is king and the king of kings. Husayn himself is Islam and the shield of Islam. Though he gave his head (for Islam) but never pledged Yazid. Truly Husayn is the founder of "There is no Deity except Allah."

Shah ast Hussain, Badshah ast Hussain,
Deen ast Hussain, Deen Panah ast Hussain,
Sar dad, na dad dast, dar dast-e-yazeed,
Haqaa key binaey La ila ast Hussain

Hussain is the Master, Hussain is the King,
Hussain is Faith, Hussain is Refuge for the Faith,
He gave his head but not his hand in Yazeed's hand
Verily Hussain is the foundation of La'Illah.

A good Muslim was there also at Karbala shooting arrows at Namaz time on Hussain, than later decapitating his head...
The problem is I talk about good Muslims and Bad Muslims
But I am wondering where have all the good human beings have gone...

Firoze Shakir
Photographerno1
10 July 2007

Beggar Boyz


Beggar Boyz
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1
once born as humans
spawned of defective eggs
lying on the floor
gods own unbranded dregs
spindle like bodies
spindle like legs
dodged as digital
burnt as negs

Woman on a Burning Roof Top

her pain was immense
silence in the winds
soundless pin drop
waves after waves
of maddening memories
that she could not stop
as i write this sitting
in my shop
no greater hatred
than hatred of man
through religiosty
as the bombs drop
masjids where shia pray
grenades they lob
these so called
allahs name tarnishing
radical nabobs
if you commit a crime
in muslim countries
your hands they will chop
the laws of sharia beyond
a full stop
but if you kill
the heretic
the kaffir
take hostages
besiege masjids
you are proclamied as a jehadi
allah ho akbar
from minaret tops
a weeping picture
a circle of confusion
angle of focus
robbed of a depth of field
beyond f stops

Woman Among Men

This was my first shot , while I was about to take it this possessed woman showed her desire to join them I did, she is a favorite of the Iranians , they feed her , she has a fabulous equation with them ..
I write this and post the picture too, to show you that they are happy as I have included her in the shot.They are not mocking her or her arrested womanhood.I thought I should say this in their defence.
They who feed thousands free noon and in the evening..
The people who come here are mostly imbalanced like this lady but hungry for food.
We all our hungry pictures here at Flickrs as food for thought..

The Good Samaritans

These are the heroes in my eyes of Hussain Tekri Jaorah , they are the Irani restrauteurs , hoteliers who come here to feed the poor the needy pilgrims for Chehlum, a common kitchen for all communities not just Shias.
One of them told me that many years before Hussain Tekri had become famous a few had come here from Hyderabad, they saw the living conditions, they decided that the next year they would pool in recources and feed the people .They did year after year every year .
I never met anyone of them and strange it may seem I am posting this picture for the first time , so if one of them sees it please convey my best wishes.May your tribe increase , the most important aspect of any religiosity is to help heal and feed the underprivilged.The Iranians are incidentally Shias.
To feed do good so that the left hand does not what the right hand is doing..this picture was the day were leaving , kindly they gave me a lift till Jaorah town.

I am not here on the net to start my own Madarssa classes or open a prayer hall, I am a human being , born a Shia..but a Muslim all the same even if you call me a heretic or a burkha shooting photographer it hurts me not..
If there was a hint of Karbala in Hinduism , I would gladly become a Hindu..
For some I am, saffronised by one of the colors of my flag .
I fail to understand one thing not just as a Shia but as Muslim, these guys call us heretics, they call us kaffirs, but yet they dont have the balls to tell the radicals at Lal Masjid that what they are doing under the guise of seminarian thought is certainly not Islam that the Holy Prophet preached.
But these guys like their erstwhile forefathers on the sands of Karbala kept mum, than blotted the chapters by paying money to historians to change the course of events.. that shame them nonetheless.
Makes me throw up,,
This is where the buck ends.
You don’t like Shiasm fine, you say Shiasm sucks so be it, but at least guide your Ummah not to turn doctors into killer machines. Now entry to foreign countries to those good Muslims too will become difficult just by a few disgruntled elements...
Oh yeah I forgot the Doctors were good Muslims...how good they were will be known after the complete investigations..
A Man who destroys has no right to live.
A man who thinks evil about his country has committed an unpardonnable offence.
Yes Afzal should hang.
We Muslims they say are targetted , yes we are bcause of the unending crimes of a very few.I have always said the Terrorist is much smarter than the cops, he has better infrastructure , better network than the Intelligence that fails each time a bomb blast occurs..today it is not a guy in a skull cap goatee , the new terrorist like the Glasgow affair is the Metrosexual Terrorist .
Read my poem that I wrote first at Sulekhs Blogs and they laughed the few Brahamanic Matunga types , calling guys like me confused Muslims...
Yes perhaps but we live as better Hindus than you can ever live as Muslims.
I think I shall rest .. no not Rest In Peace .
Allah Ho Akbar .

The Metrosexual Terrorist


Earlier

The Terrorist

was masked

Face hidden

A faceless thought

Forbidden

But he

needs no mask

The metro sexual terrorist

Is today unhidden

A young woman

A child

A man on a wheel chair

And even a man on

A stretcher

Sick bedridden

No chequred scarves

The new face of terrorism

with a new

meticulous thought

Overridden



my poem dedicated to the fighting and ever living spirit of a mumbaikar.

http: //www.flickr.com/photos/firozeshakir/691169562/

firoze shakir

www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-metrosexual-terrorist/

PS The lady in the picture is a possessed woman she thought when I asked her to be part of the group , that I was a Devil in disguise.

I am on Flickr Instagram You Tube