They were good Muslims, respected in a local multi-ethnic community of whites, Africans, East Europeans, Pakistanis and Bengalis. But then Shehzad, one of their four children, went missing last week from the family home in Colwyn Road. Police believe that he was not only a victim of last Thursday’s London bombings, but one of the perpetrators.

Across the city in Holbeck, Mahmood and Maniza Hussain, also originally from Pakistan, heard only the same deathly silence from their son Hasib, 19. They, too, face the likelihood that another loving family has spawned a suicide bomber.

The two sons were friends who had sprung from similar backgrounds. Yet they were different characters, one intelligent, studious and a keen cricketer, the other a wild teenager who suddenly turned to an intense religious faith. Shehzad had a brother and two sisters, children of the proprietor of South Leeds Fisheries, a familiar and respected figure in the Beeston community. The fish shop was open yesterday but there was no sign of the owner.

Mohamed Ansaar Riaz, 19, and Azzy Mohamed, 21, said their friend Shehzad was “the best lad you could ever meet”. They described how he had grown up in Beeston, studied sports science subjects at university and been a competent all-rounder for a local Asian cricket team. He last played only a fortnight ago. “He was a sweet guy who gets on with everyone,” Mr Riaz said.

Shehzad’s uncle, Mohamed Azfal, said that his nephew visited Pakistan last year. The family had come originally from Faisalabad. “His dad said he keeps telephoning him but there is never any reply, so he is worrying himself to death.”

It was a phone call from the equally anxious parents of Hasib Hussain to the police to report him missing from their home in a sloping red-brick row of terraced houses that alerted officers to a possible connection with the outrage.

A cousin said yesterday that Hasib “went off the rails and his parents were very worried. They wanted to instil some discipline in him; I don’t know what happened, but 18 months to two years ago Hasib suddenly changed and became devoutly religious.”

The cousin, who asked not to be named, said that Hasib’s family knew that he had travelled south in the days leading up to the bombings, and grew extremely concerned when they were unable to make contact with him. “In the end his family telephoned the police and reported him missing,” the cousin said.

A friend of Shehzad and Hasib said that both were highly respected and looked up to by younger members of the community. “Shehzad was the sort of person who would always tell the young kids that they should stay out of trouble and make something of their life. Hasib was also someone I looked up to, even though he was a year younger than me. He was a real gentle giant. He went on the Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca) a couple of years ago and grew a beard for that, but he never came across as any sort of a fanatic.”

The friend, who asked not to be named, said that he was “devastated” to learn that the pair may have been involved in the London bombings.

“After 9/11, I can remember talking to Shehzad. He said that what had happened was wrong, that there was a place in heaven for everyone who believed in one God.”

Two other Leeds men have been missing and out of contact with their families since the London bomb attack, but their identities are less clear. Yesterday’s raids involved five addresses in Leeds and Dewsbury. Police sealed properties in Colwyn Road and Stratford Street in the Beeston area. At the same time in Dewsbury, they swooped on a redbrick council semi in Lees Holme and a modern bungalow in Thornhill Park.

Farida Patel, an Asian woman, is believed to live at the bungalow with her daughter, Hasina, and son, Arshad. Later yesterday police took away a Honda and a silver Ford Escort from the house.

At the address in Stratford Street, Leeds, neighbours said that the house was occupied by Jacksey Fiaz, one of three brothers brought up by their mother at the house.

In Hyde Park Road, near the city centre, armed police raided a property identified by Scotland Yard as a bomb factory.

At about 1pm more than 500 residents and workers were evacuated from the Woodsley Road area as police began a forensic examination of Alexandra Grove, a block of modern purpose-built student flats, after gaining entry by a controlled explosion.

Last night, police erected scaffolding, draped in tarpaulin, outside several of the addresses, including Stratford Street and Colwyn Road, to mask the activities of forensic officers.

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