Faisal Shaikh, Tanveer Ansari, Sohail Ahmed, 10 other accused and 15 absconding in the case are part of the terror database maintained by the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US.

“The information is maintained and updated by the FBI in their database,” said a source. The 7/11 accused have been listed as operatives of Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is mentioned as an offshoot of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

Their profiles, photographs and sketches have been alphabetically arranged in the databases of the FBI, the Terrorist Threat Integration Centre established in 2004 as also the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Scotland Yard.

Britain’s Military Intelligence (MI6) has also acquired and saved information on the accused in the Mumbai train blasts case.

For Western intelligence agencies working on terrorism, the profiles of 7/11 accused offer an interesting study. They come from varied backgrounds and some of them are qualified professionals.

Tanveer Ansari is a doctor but, police say, harboured intentions to fight against Israel and plant chemical bombs in the USA. Faisal Sheikh, the kingpin, maintained a distance from the mainstream and preferred to be on his own. “We noticed a striking similarity in the profiles of the youths who were picked up in a suspected terror attack. They were also overtly religious youth who remain aloof from the society like Faisal Sheikh,” said the source.

However, sources say there’s another similarity that they found interesting: usage of ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil). ANFO was used by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Basque terrorists and also the Bali bombers.

The Mumbai police had shared the details of 7/11 bombers with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of London, when deputy commandant of United Kingdom’s Anti Terrorist Squad, Stuart Harrison, visited Mumbai, along with a team of officers from the Scotland Yard. The two police teams had exchanged investigation details of the train blasts in London and Mumbai.

The Mumbai police, however, deny any such collaboration.

“Officially, we have not passed any information to anyone except India’s own central agencies like Intelligence Bureau (IB) or National Security Agency (NSA),” says Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Krish Pal Raghuvanshi, “If it has gone to FBI and MI6 through other channels, then we are not aware.”