Another Indian doctor detained for UK attacks

London, July 3: Apart from doctor Mohammed Haneef, arrested in Australia, there is another doctor detained in connection with failed UK attacks in Liverpool who is reportedly an Indian.

The man was arrested after being disabled with a taser gun after police surrounded his car. According to neighbours, the man was an Indian doctor who worked at Halton Hospital in Cheshire. A colleague told the newspaper, Muslim News, that the man may have been detained because he was using the mobile telephone and internet account of another man who has recently left Britain.

Following the arrests involving the Glasgow bombings and the London bombing attempts, it is suspected secret cell of foreign militants, believed to be linked to al-Qaeda were using British hospitals as cover.

Five of the eight people under arrest last night are said to be doctors. Another of those detained is the wife of one of the doctors, who is a medical assistant working for the NHS. The home of a sixth doctor is said to have been searched by police. Attention has been focused on a group of nationals from the Middle East, who had not previously attracted the interest of security agencies.

Following the link between the attacks in London and Glasgow, control of the investigation was transferred to Scotland Yard.

Police carried out 19 raids across the country, arresting nationals from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Among those arrested was Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, a 26-year-old neurologist who was born in Saudi Arabia but is of Palestinian origin and was travelling on a Jordanian passport. He and his 27-year-old wife, a medical assistant, were arrested on the M6 in Cheshire, in connection with the attempted bombings in London.

Also under arrest was Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla, an Iraqi from Baghdad who arrived in the UK in April 2006. He is said to have been one of the two men in the Cherokee Jeep in the Glasgow airport attack, and is suffering from third-degree burns.

His companion, under arrest, is also from Iraq, while two other men, aged 25 and 28, arrested in Paisley yesterday, were said to be doctors from Saudi Arabia.

UNI