He's the man who knows too much. He dropped out of college and went to three different countries to learn flying. First to Australia, then Texas, in the US, before finally enrolling at a flying school in London for a course in advanced commercial pilot's training. Apparently modern, fluent in English-and religious. He told Mumbai Police a month ago that the Parliament House in Delhi was to be attacked. The attackers would be Afghans and Arabs, he said.

He could have been Mohammed Atta from Egypt. He is Mohammed Afroz from Cheetah Camp in Mumbai.

UNDER COVER: Afroz (above); Mumbai Police suspect Afroz is part of the Al Qaida network

Born in the family of a poor tailor, Abdul Razak, 25-year-old Afroz could have been just another youngster who dreamt big-in this case of being a commercial pilot-but the family could not afford to pay for the dream. Enter London-based uncle Mubarak Musalman. Afroz enrols first at the Royal Victorian Aero Club, run out of the Moorrabbin Airport near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, in 1997-98, only to drop out. Returns to India. Family persists and Afroz returns to flying school again in 1998-99. This time at the Tyler International School of Aviation in Texas, a premier flying club with simulator facility. Once more he heads back home without completing the course.

Juvenile delinquency perhaps. But why would anyone-even a rich uncle-agree to pay around Rs 70 lakh to get a reluctant student learn? On his almost accidental arrest on October 2 at the three-star Hotel Abbot in Navi Mumbai following a tip-off on a free-spending youth, Afroz was found with several international cash cards and global mobile cards.

The Mumbai Police found evidence in the form of a remittance receipt for the transfer of Rs 7 lakh from ANZ Grindlays Bank (now merged with Standard Chartered Bank) in Delhi to his Mumbai account. The trail of transfers grows cold there: the deposit receipt has only a signature and no other details.

Expectedly, the police suspect domestic extremist groups of being behind this money transfer. Their surmise: Afroz, allegedly a SIMI member, was a recruit for suicide missions and the family-living in suspiciously noveau riche trappings in the centre of a slum in Mumbai's Trombay area-had been promised financial stability. While the family denies any connection with terrorist outfits, Afroz himself has confessed details that link him with the dreaded Al Qaida.

In his confessions, Afroz identified the 1999 hijackers of Flight IC-814 from Kathmandu not just by name but also by their nicknames, for instance Sandy for Shahid Akhtar Sayed and Zia for Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim. He has also provided the police with other details, like the fact that Zia and Sandy were trained in Australia. Although sceptical to begin with, the police were convinced when Afroz remained consistent throughout the many rounds of questioning.

More significantly, Afroz was also familiar with some of the suspects of the 9/11 attack. Of the 19 suspects listed by the FBI, Afroz seemed to know Ziad Jarrahi and Ahmed Alnami (hijackers of Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco which crashed in Pennsylvania), Nawaq Alhamizi (flight 77 from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles which crashed into the Pentagon), Mohammed Atta and Waleed M. Alshehri (flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles which crashed into the north tower of WTC), Ahmed Alghamdi and Hamza Alghamdi (Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles which crashed into the south tower of WTC). Afroz also revealed that one of these bombers had trained with him at the Tyler School.

The September 11 attacks, it seems, says a Mumbai Police officer, "were only part of a larger and more terrifying game plan". Afroz revealed during interrogation that a series of simultaneous attacks using civil airliners had been planned at the British House of Commons, the Rialto Tower in Australia and the Indian Parliament. The final orders were received on September 9 and flight tickets for aircraft targeted for hijacking were purchased on the afternoon of September 10. Afroz was one of a quintet that was to hijack a London-Manchester flight at 5 p.m. GMT on September 11. It's not clear whether the mission was not carried out because flights were aborted or the team members lost their nerve.

Police believe the team backed out. There are some who believe that following his failure, Afroz chose to attract attention and be picked up to save himself. He returned to Mumbai on September 22 and stayed at a hotel in Mumbai Central under his own name for two days. Then he took off to Goa for a week before returning to Navi Mumbai. Once again, he stayed at a hotel instead of his home. Why did he throw enough money around to attract attention, and, most important, why did he retain his passport?

Till December 13 when the Indian Parliament was attacked by a suicide squad, western intelligence agencies and the media were pooh-poohing the Mumbai Police's claims. In the past month, western intelligence agencies have apparently stonewalled requests for help. While the Australian Government has sent a team of officials to share information and made a request to interrogate Afroz in custody, the British have made no move to check the antecedents of the "uncle" who funded Afroz in London.

A disappointed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, speaking before the Parliament attacks, asked, "What will India gain by putting one innocent man behind bars and peddling strange stories? The damage has been done in the US and if we don't wake up now it might be too late." On his part Mumbai Police Commissioner M.N. Singh was unfazed. "The investigation is on, it is a mammoth task and we are looking for cooperation from other countries," he said.

Significantly Afroz's confessions indicate that the Al Qaida network has deep roots in communities in Australia and the US. For instance he used to meet some other "flying students" at the Werribee Islamic Centre-mostly at the Al Taqwa mosque in Victoria run by Maulana Mansoor Illyas alias Mohammed Usmani, who it seems was the real brain behind the suicide squads. While he denied links with Al Qaida, his sketch of Usmani bears an uncanny resemblance to the terrorist organisation's second-in-command Ayman- al-Zawahiri. Afroz met Usmani at the Pakistani Hotel in Hong Kong in May 2000 where they finalised plans to strike at the House of Commons in London. To this end he enrolled with Cabair College of Air Training at the Cranfield Airport near Bedford in the UK.

India's own face of Al Qaida in many ways, Afroz typifies the profile of those involved in the September 11 attacks in the US. The Mumbai Police have since September been emphasising the existence of independent terrorist cells within the country but the ease with which they operate and the extent of penetration they have achieved has shocked them.

Perhaps Afroz, charged under Section 121 of the IPC (sedition and waging war against the country), will help Indian police and intelligence agencies put together the jigsaw that is spreading terror across the globe. If he's for real. If he lives. If he tells. If.