NI police aid MI5 on airport case

It has emerged that Kafeel Ahmed, a former Queen's University student, spent almost three years in NI.

He is one of the two men arrested at Glasgow Airport last weekend after a burning jeep was rammed into the main terminal building.

Mr Ahmed is critically ill and police have not been able to question him.

The man arrested with him, Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah, was charged on Friday with conspiracy to cause explosions.

Mr Ahmed graduated from Queen's University with a masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 2003.

The Metropolitan Police and MI5 became aware of the Belfast connection two days ago and contacted the intelligence branch of the PSNI.

They are now working together to draw up a detailed profile of the time he spent here.

They are trying to establish details of his activities, friends and associates, both at Queen's and in the wider community.

The priority will be to establish whether he remained in contact with anyone after leaving Queen's, particularly in the days and weeks before the Glasgow and London attacks.

There are no plans to formally question anyone in Belfast at this stage.

A spokeswoman for Queen's said Scotland Yard had advised that they say nothing in relation to Mr Ahmed.

Mr Ahmed has been transferred from the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley to a specialist burns unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he is under armed guard, health officials said.

Jamal Iweida of the Belfast Islamic Centre said he knew Kafeel Ahmed and was shocked at what had happened.

"I knew Kafeel for about two years while he was staying in Belfast as a postgraduate student at Queen's University," he said.

"My memories of Kafeel are of a very pleasant and calm person, a very intellectual person, very friendly and sociable in fact."

Eight people have so far been arrested in connection with last week's attacks in London and Glasgow.