Agence France Presse

MADRAS, 15 January 2004 — An Indian Muslim, at the center of a terrorism scare on trans-Atlantic flights, is an innocent leather-garment exporter, reports said yesterday.

The man, whose full name is Abdul Haye Mohammad Illyas, is based in the southern Indian city of Madras with business interests in the United States and Europe — which requires frequent air travel, Indian investigators said.

Illyas’s name phonetically matches that of Al-Qaeda operative Moulvi Abdul Hai, who was captured by US troops in Afghanistan but who later escaped from custody.

The confusion began when US intelligence agencies scanning airline passenger manifests picked out Illyas’s name, listed for travel on an Air France Paris-Los Angeles flight on Dec. 24, as a possible match for Hai, wanted since 2002.

The suspicions of international intelligence agencies seemed confirmed when Illyas failed to show up for the flight to Los Angeles, which was ultimately canceled at the request of Washington due to fears of an attack.

A similar alert was re-issued by Air France on Jan. 7, informing the US and French intelligence that Illyas was booked on Paris-Los Angeles flight four days later.

He had been expected to land in Paris on Jan. 7 on an Air France flight from Bombay and had a reservation on Jan. 11 for an onward flight to Los Angeles. But this time too, Illyas failed to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris where French police were waiting for him to check his identity.

US intelligence agencies then sought the assistance of their Indian counterparts, who ran a quick verification test which established the businessman’s bona fides. According to the Indian Express newspaper, Illyas had won frequent flier tickets for travel on the Paris-Los Angeles sector.

When Air France asked him for his dates of travel, Illyas randomly chose Dec. 24 without really intending to use the ticket, the paper quoted family members as saying.

It said Illyas was unaware of the panic he had caused until news reports mentioned him by name. Air security has been stepped up globally in recent weeks after US intelligence reported Al-Qaeda might be planning aircraft suicide attacks similar to those carried out in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.