LONDON (Reuters) - An Indian man who took part in a suspected bomb plot in Glasgow has died in hospital after suffering horrific burns in a botched attack on a Scottish airport nearly five weeks ago, police said on Friday.
Kafeel Ahmed, 27, was one of two occupants of a jeep laden with petrol canisters that rammed into Glasgow airport on June 30 and burst into flames. There were no casualties in the building and both men were arrested.
“We can confirm that the man seriously injured during the course of the incident at Glasgow airport ... has died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary,” a police spokeswoman said.
The day before the attack, two cars were found in central London with bombs packed with gas canisters, petrol and nails which failed to explode.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spoken of an al Qaeda link to the alleged plot, in which three doctors from Iraq, Jordan and India have been charged.
Security sources say they are still working to establish how and where the alleged conspiracy was put together, including whether it was directed by al Qaeda operatives outside Britain.
Ahmed, who died late on Thursday, had been in hospital since June 30 with 90 percent burns. Police kept the engineer under armed guard but were unable to interview him because he was in a coma, a spokeswoman for Strathclyde police said.
Witnesses to the airport attack said Ahmed jumped out of the jeep and ignited a spectacular fireball by dousing himself and the vehicle in petrol.
“I remember his injuries, and to me they were the most horrific injuries I had seen on a living person. In my opinion he was resigned to death,” said Stewart Ferguson, an off-duty policeman who grabbed a fire extinguisher to hose him down.
Although Ahmed could not be questioned and charged, he was named by police as a co-conspirator with Jordanian Mohammed Asha and British-born Iraqi Bilal Abdulla, the other occupant of the jeep, in a plot to cause explosions.
Ahmed’s brother Sabeel, 26, was arrested in Liverpool hours after the Glasgow attack and has been charged with possessing information that could have prevented a terrorist attack.
Their second cousin Mohamed Haneef, 27, was arrested in Australia but freed last week after police there dropped charges against him of supporting terrorism by supplying Sabeel with him mobile phone SIM card.
The botched London and Glasgow attacks prompted Britain to raise its security alert to “critical”, its highest level, for several days. They posed an early challenge for Brown only days after he succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister.
Uno de los sospechosos detenidos en el ataque terrorista al Aeropuerto Internacional de Glasgow murió el jueves a la noche a causa de quemaduras de tercer grado en el Hospital de Glasgow luego de haber sido detenido hace casi un mes.

"Podemos confirmar que un hombre severamente herido durante el incidente en Glasgow ... ha muerto en el Hospital de Glasgow", declaró una portavoz de la policía.

El sospechoso, Kafeel Ahmed de 27 años de edad, era uno de los dos detenidos en el aeropuerto luego de que un Jeep en llamas colisionara con la terminal del aeropuerto.

El ingeniero indio había sufrido quemaduras en el 90% de su cuerpo.

Bilal Talal Samad Abdullah, el otro sospechoso, ha sido acusado de conspirar para causar explosiones.

El incidente en Glasgow ocurrió un día después de que se desactivaran dos autos-bomba en Londres. Ambos incidentes hicieron que el Centro de Análisis Terrorista del Reino Unido declarara un estado "crítico", el estado más grave que indica que un ataque terrorista nuevo es inminente.

Gordon Brown, el Primer Ministro del Reino Unido, había declarado que existía un enlace de los sospechosos con Al Qaeda.

El hermano de Kafeel Ahmed fue capturado en Liverpool un día después, y ha sido acusado por poseer información que pudo haber prevenido un ataque terrorista.

=== Críticas ===

Algunos británicos protestaron ante el gobierno de Glasgow por haber dado cuidados médicos costosos a un implicado en un ataque terrorista.

Sin embargo, el gobierno de Glasgow defendió el tratamiento de Ahmed. "Es completamente correcto que recibiera un tratamiento apropiado que nuestros servicios podían ofrecer ya que esto respeta nuestro valor social en la vida humana", dijo un portavoz gubernamental.