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Family backs terror arrest men
The family of three suspects held following raids by anti-terror police say the men have done nothing wrong. Ahmad Khan, 18, Omar Khyam, 22, and Shujah Khyam, 17, were arrested in Crawley, West Sussex, on Tuesday. Ansar Khan, father of Ahmad and uncle of Omar and Shujuah, said there was "absolutely no truth" in the allegations against them. The three men were among eight suspected Islamist terrorists arrested in raids across south-east England. Mr Khan accused police of "acting like terrorists" when they raided his house to arrest his son. He said: "They explained nothing. The warrant was shown after 20 minutes, and they wouldnât even let me answer the phone." He said the raid had left him "very angry", and his son had had to be dragged from the house crying for his mother. Mr Khan said Ahmed was a "very quiet boy" and a "good Muslim". He said he had warned him about going to a local mosque, saying: "I said, you read books by scholars. [Those books] are true, what they tell you at the mosque is not. Mr Khan said Omar had been to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but had no involvement with al-Qaeda. He said the family had flown out and brought him home after about six weeks. "My cousins are intelligence officers in the Pakistan army, and they helped us find him." Mr Khan said Omar had been a keen cricketer and had been tipped to play for England one day. Omar, who studied for his A-levels in Reigate, Surrey, once captained Sussex under-18s. Eight men were arrested in Tuesdayâs raids in south-east England, and detectives seized half a ton of fertiliser, of a type used as explosive in the Bali and Istanbul bombings. About 700 officers from five forces carried out searches at 24 addresses early on Tuesday morning, following weeks of surveillance. Posted by: Howard UK 2004-03-31 |
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