Terror suspect worked for Indian aviation outsourcing company

Bangalore: Kafeel Ahmed, identified by the police as one of two main suspects in the British car bomb plot, worked for much of last year as an aeronautical engineer for an Indian outsourcing company that designs aircraft parts for clients including Boeing and Airbus.
Ahmed worked in the Bangalore office of the company, Infotech Enterprises, between December 2005 and July 2006, K.S. Susindar, a company spokesman, said by telephone Monday. Susindar offered that information after checking an employee database that listed Ahmed as having degrees from universities in India and Northern Ireland. The company did not say exactly which aviation projects Ahmed, one of 5,500 employees, worked on.
The disclosure of his work at Infotech suggests that Ahmed might have had access to the design secrets of some top aircraft makers in the very period when his friends have told the Indian police that he was turning into a Islamic radical.
There has been no suggestion that Ahmed did anything untoward while at Infotech. Susindar said Ahmed had resigned from the company voluntarily and that the company had no problem with him. Susindar declined to provide details as to which clients Ahmed worked for.
Infotech's clients have included some of the biggest names in aviation, according to its filings to investors: Boeing and Airbus, each of which has set up dedicated engineering teams at Infotech; Bombardier, the Canadian maker of corporate jets; and Pratt & Whitney, an aircraft engine maker that claims to power nearly half the commercial planes in the world.
Another client of Infotech is the Home Office of the British government, which is responsible for domestic security in the United Kingdom and is leading the investigation into the car bomb plot. Infotech helped the Home Office build a searchable computer database of criminal activity in Cornwall and Devon counties.
09/07/07 Anand Giridharadas/International Herald Tribune, France

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Categories: Foreign Jul 2007, Safety Jul 2007