The father of one of the men arrested during a series of anti-terrorism raids has today protested his son's innocence.

Ansar Khan, 48, a taxi driver who works at Gatwick airport, said that there was "absolutely no truth" in the allegations against his son, Ahmad Khan, 18, a journalism student.

He also dismissed the possibility that his nephews, Omar Khyam, 22, and Shujah Khyam, 17, who were also arrested, were involved in terrorist activity.

The three were among eight arrested during early morning raids yesterday in Crawley, West Sussex, after the discovery of the ingredients for a half-tonne fertiliser bomb in a storage unit in West London.

Omar, a computer student, was once captain of the U18 Surrey cricket team and had been tipped to play for England.

Mr Khan said that Omar had been to the Pakistan border, but had no involvement with al-Qaeda.

He said the family had flown out and brought him home after around six weeks. "My cousins are intelligence officers in the Pakistan army, and they helped us find him."

Speaking from his parents’ home in Langley Drive, Crawley, Mr Khan said police officers had acted "like terrorists" when they came to raid his home in Lime Close, Crawley, at 6am yesterday.

He said: "They explained nothing. They wouldn't even let me answer the phone."

Mr Khan said his son had been tearful as he was taken from the house, and kept crying for his mother.

He added that he had argued with police and had refused to leave his home when it was searched, adding that their behaviour made him "very angry".

Mr Khan's was speaking as the investigation into the alleged bomb plot continued in London.

The eight suspects aged between 17 and 32, are being detained on suspicion of terrorism. They can be held without charge for 14 days. Seven are British citizens of Pakistani descent and one is an Algerian.

Mr Khan said today that his son was a "good Muslim – better than me", who prayed five times a day, but criticised the teaching provided at some mosques, saying it was "wrong".

"I said to (Ahmad) don't go to the mosque. I said, you read books by scholars. (Those books) are true. What they tell you at the mosque is not."

Angel Acebes, the Spanish Foreign Minister, has said that one of those held in London may have been connected to the Madrid massacre earlier this month, which killed 190 people.