By Rebecca Camber and Keith Gladdis
24 April 2012
Police smashed a suspected terrorist cell yesterday after arresting five men during dawn raids in Luton.
Counter-terrorism officers from Scotland Yard carried out the raids, which were described as significant and the culmination of a long-running investigation.
Sources played down any links to the Olympics or Government plans to deport radical cleric Abu Qatada.Police swooped in the Bury Park area of the town yesterday in the wake of a number of searches last September.
Detectives are said to have spent months analysing computer files before deciding to arrest the men.
The suspects, aged between 21 and 35, are being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, and are thought to include two taxi drivers and a security guard. No weapons were found. One neighbour claimed that one of those arrested had previously protested against British military parades.She said: ‘He was on TV protesting against British troops when they came back from Afghanistan.’
Last night, Imran Shehzad, 34, named his brother Umar Arshad, 23, as one of those arrested, although he has not been formally identified by police. He said: ‘This started in September when the police came. They seized laptops and kids’ project books.’
The raids come the same week that mass killer Anders Breivik, on trial for the massacre of 77 people, told a Norwegian court that Muslims want sharia law in 'places like Luton'.
Police said that there was no danger to nearby residents after their swoop on five homes in Luton as part of anti-terror raids.
Bedfordshire Police assisted with the early morning operation, which was led by Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command.
In the planning of these search warrants, full consideration has been given to treating those arrested and especially their families, with appropriate respect for cultural and religious identity as far as is possible.'
[ed. You mean...no dogs? Wait till they finish praying? Police take shoes off? Women can't be taken into custody unless a muslim officer is present and both officer/s and 'client' must wear a burkha?...]
The searches at the five separate addresses in the Bury Park area of Luton were expected to take at least 24 hours.
Homes were being searched in Bishopscote Road, Maidenhall Road, Crawley Green Road, Cornel Close and Shaftesbury Road.
Bury Park is the home of Luton Central Mosque.
One of the homes raided by anti terrorist police is home to a Bangladeshi family, it is understood.
The extended three bedroomed semi in Maidenhall Road had been raided by the police on an earlier occasion, neighbours said.
Four cars were parked outside. One, a Saab 93, had a personalised number plate.
A middle aged man looked out of an upstairs window today, but the door was answered by a police officer.
One neighbour said: 'They are a Bangladeshi family who have lived here quite a long time.'
Another neighbour, Nighat Hussain, 38, said 'There is a husband a wife, two sons and two daughters.
'One son has a beard and the other is quite chubby.
'I don't know if they all live there. I think they have a grandchild as well.'
Luton has long been associated with fundamentalists, including the 2010 Stockholm suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, and Salahuddin Amin, who was jailed for life in 2007 for planning fertiliser bomb attacks on a shopping centre and nightclub.
'No roads have been closed and there is no danger to other nearby residents,' said a spokesman for Bedfordshire Police.
'Families of those people who have been arrested have been advised to find alternative accommodation while the searches go on to minimise inconvenience to themselves, and if necessary the police will assist them with this.'
[ed. If that had happened to the the rest of us we'd be told to "work it out ourselves" and they'd leave us with the bill for the destroyed property. Sickening stuff...]
