'Secret data' found on Khafeel's hard disk

Experts have succeeded in decoding 'secret information' stored in the hard disk of a computer seized from the home in Bangalore of Khafeel Ahmed, a suspect in the terror attack on Glasgow airport, official sources said on Tuesday.

The Thiruvananthapuram-based Resource Centre for Cyber Forensics, which is under the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, will submit it report on the disk's contents to Bangalore Police, the sources told PTI.

City police launched an investigation a day after the botched terror plot in Britain was reported due to suspicions that Khafeel was linked to it. Police seized a computer and CDs during a search of his residence in Banashankari locality of the city.

Khafeel, who is believed to have driven the burning jeep laden with crude bombs into Glasgow airport, had stored 'project' data in the hard disk and protected it with a secret code that is difficult to decipher, the sources said.

An expert in the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore could not decode the contents of the hard disk, which police believe has vital information on the terror plot allegedly hatched by Khafeel, an engineer.

Fearing that repeated attempts to decode the information might lead to its deletion, police sent the disk to the facility in Thiruvananthapuram.

The sources, however, refused to say whether the experts in Thiruvananthapuram had been able to retrieve all the data on the disk or if only part of the information had been culled from it.

Khafeel had, before leaving for Britain on May five, handed over the disk to his mother Zakia Ahmed, warning her that it contained some important information on his 'project.'

He also asked his mother to ensure the safety of the disk and not to let it slip into anybody's hands. Zakia, taking the warning seriously, had handed the disk over to her daughter Sadia, a medical student. Sadia, in turn, asked a friend to keep the disk.

When Khafeel called his home in Bangalore on June 30, he told his mother that he was working on an important 'project' and asked his family to pray for its success, investigators said. They pointed out that the failed terror attacks in Britain occurred hours after Khafeel spoke to his family.