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After wave of raids, the
questions
Shocked neighbours tell of terrifying moments during
nationwide arrests while relatives seek answers
Eyewitnesses yesterday gave dramatic accounts of a
series of coordinated anti-terrorist raids across England that led
to 12 people being detained and questioned at the top-security
Paddington Green police station in west London. Relatives and
neighbours expressed shock at the arrests and questioned the police
tactics. Five people were arrested in Willesden, north London, one
later released; one in Sudbury, north London; one in Wembley, north
London; two in Paddington; two in Blackburn; one in Luton and one in
Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Willesden, north London
Terence Costa, an immigration adviser, was just leaving his
office above the Golden Touch barber's in Willesden High Road when
his routine day was interrupted. In the flat above, on the top
floor, David (who did not want to give his full name) had just given
his 14-year-old daughter her lunch and, outside the barber's, the
owner Steve was sitting in his girlfriend's car as he took a
breather.
David, glancing out of the window, saw them first: "They came from
both ends of the street; there were hundreds of armed police. They
were running into the shops opposite, then these vehicles tore up
the road and parked horizontally across the street." Seconds later
Steve looked up and saw a young Asian man running towards his
barber's shop. "The police were chasing him. They shouted at me,
'Don't move, he's dangerous.' I thought, 'Oh no, he's heading for my
shop.'"
As scores of officers shouting "armed police" pursued the man, a
10-year-old girl was knocked flying on the pavement. Mr Costa
noticed none of this as he reached the doorway to the street and
came face-to-face with the fleeing suspect. "I had just reached the
bottom of the stairs and this guy ran past me into the barber shop.
He was about 23, he had short hair. I'd never seen him in the area
before."
Before he had a chance to register what was going on Mr Costa was
confronted by police. "All these officers came towards me carrying
guns, they ordered me back up the stairs and into my office."
Four anti-terrorist officers were left in Mr Costa's
office as their colleagues charged up the next flight of steps and
burst into David's flat, shouting: "Armed police, get down now.
Jess, my daughter was under the table, I just grabbed her and hit
the floor," David said. "She was screaming and crying." With the
father and daughter face down on the floor, a few officers moved
into the bedrooms and flipped over the beds in their search of the
flat. "Even the plumber who was working in the hallway was ordered
into my flat and told to hit the floor."
Eventually all three were allowed to stand up."I saw them leading
this young guy out, they had wrapped him in a blue forensic suit and
led him into a van." David said the officers had told him they had
been watching the suspect and had decided to arrest him as he
approached the barber's shop.
Bushey, Hertfordshire
In the leafy suburb of Bushey neighbours watched from behind
curtains as forensic teams searched a detached house a few miles
from the country club yesterday. Twenty-four hours earlier armed
police had burst into the whitewashed property, known as the White
House, and arrested 21-year-old Omar Rehman, whose father Mahmud is
a wholesale fishmonger.
A locksmith was busy yesterday repairing the damage as teams of
police searched the house in Little Bushey Lane, in the heart of the
stockbroker belt of Hertfordshire. Roger Walker, a neighbour, said
the family, had lived next door to him for 14 years.
"They brought their children up here," he said. "The daughter Sofia
went to Watford grammar school. The son was a student and spent a
lot of time at home. They are a lovely family, I see them to say
hello to. They have always been very pleasant."
A few weeks ago the Rehmans celebrated their daughter Sofia's
wedding and neighbours said the 24-year-old newlywed was thought to
still be on her honeymoon in Istanbul. "I saw them all go off in a
minibus. They were all dressed up," Mr Walker said.
As residents cleaned their convertible sports cars on their
driveways yesterday they expressed shock at the events of the past
24 hours. "I saw the mother go off in her car in the morning and
then went off to work as usual," Mr Walker said. "When I came home
about 2.45pm I saw all the police. There were about a dozen police
and five vehicles. I asked them what was going on; they said it
didn't concern me. This is normally such a quiet area."
Neighbours said the two grown-up children had adopted more
traditional Muslim dress and appeared to have become more religious
over the past four years. Their father worked long hours in London,
according to local people. "He always left very early in the morning
to go up to the city," one said. "He is a charming man."
Blackburn, Lancashire
Police from the Lancashire and Metropolitan forces raided four
houses and a tyre depot in Blackburn yesterday after two men were
arrested at gunpoint and pulled from a gold Mercedes in the town on
Tuesday. Two of the raided premises, a modern semi in Malham
Gardens, close to the tyre depot, and a terrace house in Shakeshaft
Street, a few hundred metres away, were said to be the homes of or
to be owned by two Asian businessmen.
Local people named them as Butch Feroze and Zamir Hussain, but their
identities have not been confirmed by police. The sources said the
tyre depot, also searched by police, was run by Mr Feroze's elder
brother Javaid. A house in Whalley New Road, believed to be his
home, was searched by police. The fifth raid was at a quiet semi in
Little Harwood, which a married couple and four young children were
ordered to leave by officers bearing a search warrant.
Mr Feroze and Mr Hussain were said to work together, buying and
selling high- performance cars including Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
"If it is those two who have been arrested, it's absolutely
ridiculous," said Mohammed Yusof, who works at an MOT centre next
door to the Lower Audley Tyre Centre, which police raided late on
Tuesday. Forensic teams continued searching there yesterday. "They
are Asian businessmen, that's all. I chill with them, I socialise
with them. They would not have anything to do with terrorism or
anything like that."
At a pharmacy opposite the house in Whalley New Road, Tahir Shah
said: "Javaid is a very well respected businessman and a very hard
worker. I'm always seeing him driving over to his garage first thing
in the morning. He is the last person I would expect to be involved
in terrorism."
Soab Patel described how police had arrived at the newly extended
home of his brother Ayub in Greenhead Avenue, and told him, his wife
Hasena and their four young children to leave just before midnight.
They told Ayub Patel, who was not arrested, that the family would
have to stay with relatives or go to a hotel, an order which reduced
Mrs Patel and her children to tears. "My brother has been a
businessman for 10 years," Soab Patel said. "He has never been
involved in any crime. I'm going to take this further - it's
absolutely scandalous."
Mr Patel told the officers they had a duty to search the house. "But
I told them, 'If you don't find anything, I want an apology. You are
putting a label on our family. Who is going to remove it?'"
Luton, Bedfordshire
In Luton residents told how police halted a car as it pulled into
their quiet, residential street and seized the driver at gunpoint.
Witnesses said the man, described as of Asian origin, had been held
trapped between the driver's door and the body of the car in driving
rain for almost three hours.
Lincoln Leslie, 71, had been painting the windows of his house in
Alexandra Avenue, half a mile north of the town centre. The retired
engineer said: "Suddenly there were loads of police officers. I
thought there must have been an accident until an officer armed with
a machine gun walked up the road to redirect the traffic."
Police sealed the area off. Mr Leslie said: "The officers searched
the man and appeared to be examining the car. They seemed to be
talking into their radios as though they were waiting for
instructions." Another witness, Greta Turner, 67, said: "I saw it
from my bedroom window. I saw three policemen with guns and knew it
wasn't just a drug raid."
Neighbours said the man, believed to be in his late 20s or early
30s, was eventually covered with a transparent plastic sheet and
gloves, handcuffed and driven away. His car, thought to be a red
Nissan, was taken away. After the arrest on Tuesday afternoon,
officers stormed a flat in a modern block owned by a housing
association in the Dallow Road area of Luton. One neighbour said: "I
looked through my peephole and saw loads of them in protective
clothing and with riot shields and carrying a battering ram. There
must have been more than 20 cops."
The neighbour said a young man of Asian origin lived in the second
floor flat with his wife or girlfriend. The neighbour said he
believed the man was a decorator or plasterer. Two officers, one in
uniform, the second in plainclothes, stood guard outside the door of
the flat last night. Another officer left the flat carrying a police
evidence bag containing computer disks and documents.
Members of the Muslim community in Luton expressed concern.
Community leaders were told of the operation as it began. But some
Muslims are still smarting from raids carried out on six homes in
March which attracted widespread publicity, but resulted in no
arrests.
Akbar Dad Khan of the group Building Bridges, which promotes harmony
between faiths, said: "There is real concern that the police are
misusing the anti-terrorism laws. The authorities risk alienating
our community."
Sandra Laville, David Ward and Steven Morris
The Guardian
Thursday August 5, 2004 |
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