Rangzieb Ahmed was the highest ranking al-Qaeda operative in Britain

His arrest by Indian forces fighting with insurgents from Pakistan at the age of 18, changed his life, his brother has told The Daily Telegraph.

Ahmed was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, but his father, who remarried, moved the family to Pakistani Kashmir when he was about seven or eight.

When Ahmed’s father returned to Britain a few years later with his brothers and sister, Ahmed was left behind with his step-mother.

Their father eventually abandoned the family and went back to Pakistan where he died a few years later.

His brother, Mohammed, said he heard that Rangzieb had got a job on a farm, and added: “I wrote to him and told him to get hold of his passport and I would send a ticket.”

But Ahmed was apparently prevented from leaving by his family.

Around two years later, he was arrested in Indian Kashmir allegedly fighting with the group Harkat ul-Mujahideen.

In jail he was sent money by Said Omar Sheikh, the British extremist who went on to murderer the journalist Daniel Pearl.

After spending seven years in an Indian jail without charge, he was eventually accused of illegally crossing the border and set free in May 2001.

“After that he lived with us but he kept himself to himself,” his brother said. “For the first two years he didn’t sit with us. He used to stay in his bedroom, eat his dinner and wouldn’t go out. He had asthma and would stay in his room watching movies – comedy and horror mostly. He was in his own world.

“He looked a bit disturbed and he kept a kitchen knife under his pillow. It was quite shocking. It was the effect of all those years in prison, and we knew the Indian authorities had tortured him.

“He got a part-time job and started studying a course for his maths and English.”

Ahmed soon returned to Pakistan and his family in Britain say they did not hear from again him until he returned for a visit in 2005.

“I spoke to the police, I called them and said, ‘He’s back'” his brother said. “and then he goes off again. He just said, ‘I need to go to Pakistan.'”

When Mohammed discovered his brother had been arrested for terrorism offences in Pakistan, he said he didn’t know what to think.

“We thought he was visiting relatives or involved with earthquake relief,” he added.

Mohammed admits he does not know if his brother is innocent or guilty but argues that he has not had a fair trial.

“I’ve never seen him with documents, a bomb or an AK47,” he said. “I don’t know whether he’s a jihadist or what. If I did I would ring the police.

“I try to be fair to everyone. I don’t know where he went or what he did but I am trying to be a brother.

Source: MEM