13 raids shattered the peace of Muslim neighbourhoods

24 people were arrested by police at houses in East London, High Wycombe and Birmingham

A BIOCHEMIST, a Heathrow airport security worker and the son of a former Tory party worker were being held by police last night.

All were among the 24 people arrested as properties in East London, Birmingham and High Wycombe, Bucking- hamshire, were targeted in co-ordinated raids.

The Tory party worker’s son was one of four held in High Wycombe. Neighbours said that he had had a difficult adolescence but had recently married and settled down.

“About six months ago he said he was converting to Islam. He grew a beard and shaved his head,” a neighbour said.

In Walthamstow, East London, a car chase presaged the action to come. Witnesses saw an unmarked police vehicle chase down a car near Walthamstow dog track before forcing the occupants out at gun point.

Arrests made during the morning included Waheed Zaman, a biochemistry student, and Amin Asmin Tariq, a Heathrow security worker. Mr Zaman, who sat on London Metropolitan University’s Student Council as a representative of the Islamic Society, is well known in the community.

Last night his sister Safeena said: “He loves fish and chips and Liverpool football club and his favourite TV programme is Only Fools and Horses. He even wanted to join the police as a forensics expert. He is a great believer in the importance of integration between our community and the Western world.”

Mr Tariq, who has been working at Heathrow for three years, was led away in handcuffs early yesterday morning, according to witnesses. He wears Western clothes and is “well-respected in the community”, according to neighbours.

Police activity in Birmingham centred on addresses in Bordesley Green and Ward End. Two properties, a suburban home and a shop with lock-up garages, have links to the same family, the Raufs, who run a cake distribution business.

Their terraced home in St Margarets Road, Ward End, where about twenty girls come nightly to learn religion, was being inspected by forensic science officers. The front door had been damaged by the raid.

A local man, whose 12-year-old daughter received lessons in basic Islam at the address, described the residents as “peaceful people”. Ikram Ulhaq said that his daughter went for an hour’s lesson at the address most evenings.

Mr Ulhaq said: “All I know is they are peaceful, religious people. They were teaching Koran and all that to the young kids. I’m shocked, I’m sure they’ve got the wrong people.”

June Lethbridge, 85, said that a family had lived at the property adjacent to her for 12 years but she did not know how many were residents. “They’ve always been very pleasant. As far as I know, most of the family are in Pakistan for a wedding at the moment. I haven’t seen them come back.”

The Raufs are understood to use a lock-up facility in Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green, for their business.

Much police activity yesterday was concentrated on a search of garages at the back of the premises, which are believed to be let by the owner.

Records suggest that the property was sold by Rashid Rauf to another man, Tayib Zaman Rauf, in 2004 for £70,000. During the morning forensic science officers in blue suits focused on at a large end-of-terrace property occupied, according to a neighbour, by a foster family. A mid-terrace house farther down the road was also being guarded. John Weir, 50, has lived for 15 years opposite a rundown Victorian mid-terrace house in Forest Road. His peace was shattered when 20 police appeared shortly before midnight.

“My daughter was looking out of the window which overlooks the street,” Mr Weir said. “She shouted to me that some officers were carrying a battering ram up the street.”

With a single blow they broke down the blue front door. No one was in the home, believed to have been rented out to two men.

The three-storey house, divided into two flats, was bought for £138,000 in cash in July, according to Land Registry records. The next day the property was let to a North African man who appeared to be a Muslim, and another man of Western appearance.

Doreen Cardy, a next-door neighbour in her seventies, said that she was woken by the sound of drilling at the property at about 5am.

At the bottom of this Daily Mail article, they note that Mr. Rasid Rauf lived at that address "two four years ago"(yes, it says two four years ago). Someone over at CNN and ABC must have used an old reverse telephone book. AND the guys arrested at that residence address names are MAROOF RAUF, 19, and ABDUL RAUF, 22," !!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=400012&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Drama at dawn as the terror squads descend on suburbia
By MICHAEL SEAMARK, TOM KELLY and NEIL SEARS

11th August 2006

Following a series of dramatic arrests across the country, nine nearby homes were evacuated 'as a precautionary measure' as police removed large boxes from the £170,000 house and garden.

Neighbours said the Sarwar family had lived at the property in rundown Walton Drive for at least 20 years and police had arrested brothers Amjad and Asad Sarwar. Friends told how the men, British born of Pakistani origin and in their late twenties, became "very religious" in recent years.

One man said they had been popular pupils at nearby Sir William Ramsey School until they reached their late teens.

"But they suddenly changed a few years ago," he said. "They became very religious, began to grow long beards and stopped socialising."

Both are understood to have married, and Amjad, 28, is believed to have a baby daughter.

Builder Phil Redfern, who was at school with the brothers, said they began to shun mainstream mosques and instead frequented a smaller mosque behind a nearby Islamic bookshop.

Three other properties in the Buckinghamshire town were raided and Met Police search teams scoured an area of woodland called King's Wood half a mile away.

In Hepplewhite Close residents said Don Stewart-Whyte, 19, who had converted to Islam and grown a beard, was arrested.

One described him as a 'mummy's boy' who converted to Islam six months ago and married an Arab girl in recent weeks.

One neighbour said he had changed his name to Abdul Wahid. "The majority of his friends are Muslims and that's how he got interested in the religion. Some say he was rebellious when he was a teenager but he wasn't that bad."

In Micklefield Road police stood guard outside a white-painted semi-detached house. Detectives carried out painstaking searches of the property, and a separate building in the back garden described as a "prayer room".

Police broke down the door of a bungalow on the opposite side of the same street to carry out further searches.

The house is believed to be home to a family originally from Pakistan, who bought it in 1987.

Since then neighbours have seen a stream of single men and women coming and going from the property.

Neighbourhood Watch coordinator Peter Whitelock, 77, said: "There were people coming and going from the house at all times of the night. There were all sorts people."

Neighbours said police took away Wassem Kayani from his home in Plomer Green Avenue, Downley, High Wycombe.

One said when she first saw Mr Kayani several years ago "he was in full-length white robe, had a full beard, very short cut hair and a little white hat.

"He did start to get a bit Westernised but he kept himself to himself."

Police armed with specialist equipment, including metal detectors, took over and occupied the three-bedroomed semi-detached house.

At least seven properties were raided in the Walthamstow area of East London.

A close family friend revealed that Asim Tariq, a security guard at Heathrow Airport, had been arrested in a dawn raid in a quiet residential street.

The 23-year-old had recently married and had a three-week-old baby called Axa and was described by neighbours as the "least religious" of the closely knit Muslim family. Mr Tariq was seen by neighbours being taken away in handcuffs from the family home just after 5am. He lives with his wife in the two-storey terrace home in Ravenswood Road.

The young Muslim lives with his father Hussain Tariq who owned a cleaning business until he retired. It is understood Asim's mother Khalida Tariq and his sister Kashif, 27, also lives at the family home.

Neighbours said police raided the Folkestone Road home of British-born Oliver Savant, 25, who changed his name to Ibrahim after becoming a devout Muslim some eight years ago.

'He supports Liverpool and his favourite food is burger and chips'

Retired fireman Paul Kleinman, 66, said: "I've known him since the day he was born. He was a very polite young man. Oliver started putting on Muslim robes and growing his beard long a few years back."

Another man arrested in Walthamstow was Waheed Zaman, a relative said.

The biomedical science student is head of the Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University.

His sister Nagina Zaman said: "My brother is a popular person and is not a terrorist. He is very open about his faith and teaches integration.

"As the head of the university's Islamic Society he has a very good rapport with people like Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway.

"He gets involved with all their Muslim events, but he is just a normal lad.

"He supports Liverpool and his favourite food is burger and chips. He is a British-born boy."

She added most of the Walthamstow suspects were thought to know each other as they had been pupils at Edinburgh Road Primary School.

Another of those arrested in Waltahmstow is believed to be Samih Ahmed, 22. About 20 police officers rammed the front door to his first-floor flat in Forest Road and spent yesterday picking through the contents of the property.

The 20-year-old man, one of four children, is understood to have paid cash for the £138,000 flat less than a month ago.

A family friend said: "Samih has always been polite. He is very religious and is always going to the mosque at the end of the road near the family home."

Police were also standing guard outside two houses in Albert Road, Walthamstow.

Neighbours said the man arrested at 61 Albert Road was Usman Saddique, 24, who works in a pizza takeaway. He was a childhood friend of Ibrahim Savant.

At the second address a neighbour said: "There was an elderly couple that lived there with four daughters, one was a foster child. I can't see how they could be caught up in terrorism."

Forensic officers were still searching a property at Queen's Road, Walthamstow, opposite the Masjid-e-Uma mosque. It is believed a man was arrested at the property.

Local man Amer Gull, 26, a shop superviser, said he was a childhood friend of Usman Saddique, Ibrahim Savant and Waheed Zaman.

Mr Gull said: "I know these guys and they aren't terrorists. Like most of us they don't like what's happening to Muslims in other countries, but we don't like what Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda are doing."

One suspect was still wearing his pyjamas when he was led away in handcuffs after police stormed a property in Barking.

His family said the man, known only as Altaf, was a newly-married 27-year-old tyre businessman who had been visiting Britain for the first time to see his wife's family in Forest Gate for a month-long holiday.

Two properties searched in Birmingham appeared to be owned by the same family.

At 3am, police smashed the door down at a four-bedroom terrace house in St Margarets Road in Ward End. Neighbours said Maroof Rauf, 19, and Abdul Rauf, 22, were arrested.

Until two four years ago, Rashid Rauf - named in the U.S. last night as one suspect arrested - was listed as living at the address

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