According to police sources, Ahmed was an engineer pursuing a PhD in computational fluid dynamics at Anglia Ruskin University, in the UK, on the topic of "Computational Approach to Ink-jet Printing of Tactile Maps." He would have earned a bachelor of mechanical engineering from India, and an M.Phil. degree in aeronautical engineering from Queen's University Belfast. As an aeronautics engineer, Ahmed worked from December 2005 to August 2006 for Infotech, an Indian outsourcing company servicing clients such as Airbus and Boeing, before resigning abruptly. It is possible that he had access to sensitive design information about various aviation companies. He was often mistakenly referred to as a medical doctor in news reports following the terrorist incidents.