An American citizen was detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi after a knife was found in his hand baggage, but his questioning by security agencies has not unearthed any terror links so far.
Kensington Carmichael, a convert from Christianity to Islam, had a tourist visa to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and came to Delhi from Pakistan. He was detained minutes before he was to board a Qatar-bound flight on Wednesday night.
The knife concealed between a herbal plant 'Shilajit' and recovered by CISF from the hand baggage of Carmichael was of 4.3 by 1.5 inches which is too small to be considered in the category of a weapon, official sources said.
Udayan Banerjee, DIG of CISF which mans airport security, said they decided to hand over Carmichael to Delhi Police after he denied that he was carrying any sharp object.
Sources privy to the investigation have said so far nothing has come to light which can link Carmichael with any terrorist activity and chances of him being released are quite high. However, they said anything about his release could only be confirmed after his questioning gets over.
They said it was Carmichael's second visit to India. His first visit was in the month of October last year and in between he had visited Bangladesh as well.
Carmichael has been kept at the Lampur detention centre in Narela where officials of intelligence agencies and Foreigners Regional Registration Office are questioning him.
Officials were trying to find out if he had any links with terror suspects David Headley and Tahawwur Rana, held by FBI last year, but nothing of that sort has surfaced so far, the sources said. Carmichael, a New York resident with a American father and Pakistani mother, changed his religion some 40 years ago. He had arrived in India for the second time a fortnight ago and travelled to various parts of the national capital.
The man, who had visited Pakistan and Bangladesh in a "very short span", was about to board a Qatar Airways flight for New York via Doha when the knife was detected.
The CISF DIG said a sub-inspector on screening found a suspicious object in Carmichael's bag and asked him whether he was carrying any knife-type object which he denied.
"The entire bag was checked physically but no knife could be found. All items in the bag were again individually screened and an alloy-kind object of 550 grams was detected which had a thin blade-like edge," Banerjee said.
"When asked, he again denied that there was any blade. The alloy-type substance was broken and a knife blade of 4.3 inches was found. We asked him where did he get this and he told us that once he had been to Pakistan and purchased it there. He claimed it to be Shilajit, an ayurvedic substance," the officer said.
He said on examination of the US national's travel itinerary, it was found that he travelled widely. "Concealment of the knife and the information about it, not giving proper answers, made it imperative for us to hand him over to Delhi Police and other security agencies for further probe into what his real motive is," Banerjee said. The American Mission had been informed about his detention, sources said. PTI
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