THE brother-in-law of the terrorist who died when he attempted to bomb Glasgow Airport has been arrested in India on suspicion of being an agent for the financing of al-Qaeda.

Syed Mohammed Zeshan Ali, who is married to the sister of Glasgow Airport terrorist Kafeel Ahmed and his brother Safeed, is alleged by police in Delhi to be part of al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent, known as AQIS, which is trying to spread Islamist terrorism in India and Pakistan.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Kushwaha confirmed the arrest of Ali to reporters in Delhi. The charges against Ali are apparently related to the funding of AQIS.

Ali was arrested on Wednesday when he arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi. He had been deported from Saudi Arabia where he had lived since 2015 Born in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Ali was reported to have been radicalised by alleged so-called “freelance radicaliser” Abdur Rehman. Ali appeared in court in Delhi on Thursday and was remanded in custody for two weeks.

A police source told an Indian newspaper: “Ali’s arrest will not only help them in finding crucial leads about his aides but also about the infiltration and expanse of AQIS in India and neighbouring countries.”

AQIS was established as a separate entity in September 2014, when al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the formation of an Indian branch. He said at the time that the group would spread Islamic rule and “raise the flag of jihad” across the subcontinent.

The existence of the AQIS group and another Islamist organisation in Pakistan known as Lashkar-e-Toiba – which means Army of the Righteous – is the cause of considerable tension between India and Pakistan, the former accusing the latter of allowing the groups to spread terror, particularly in the state of Kashmir.

The arrest comes just over ten years since the Glasgow Airport attack which saw 4000 people in the terminal saved by concrete bollards at the entrance.

It was in June 2007 that Kafeel Ahmed drove a Jeep Cherokee vehicle at the doors of Glasgow Airport’s terminal – the first terrorist attack in Scotland since the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.

The vehicle struck the bollards and caught fire, and Ahmed received burns to 90 per cent of his body, dying later in hospital.

He was accompanied in the attack by Bilal Abdullah, an NHS doctor, who was later jailed for 32 years for his part in the al-Qaeda-inspired act in which baggage handler John Smeaton and others tackled the terrorists.

Dr Safeel Ahmed was then convicted of withholding information about his bother’s plans and was jailed for 18 months after which he moved to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia where Ali also lived and where it is understood that Ali married the Ahmeds’ sister.

According to the Times of India, Ali was one of 12 suspects “who were identified as members of the global terror outfit when an AQIS module was busted in November 2015”.

It was at that point that Ali was arrested and held in Saudi Arabia until his deportation midweek.

Indian sources have also indicated that Ali’s brother Aasyaan is wanted in the current AQIS case but he is believed to have migrated to Syria to fight for Daesh.