A BIOCHEMIST, a Heathrow airport security worker and the son of a former Tory party worker were being held by police last night.

All were among the 24 people arrested as properties in East London, Birmingham and High Wycombe, Bucking- hamshire, were targeted in co-ordinated raids.

The Tory party worker’s son was one of four held in High Wycombe. Neighbours said that he had had a difficult adolescence but had recently married and settled down.

“About six months ago he said he was converting to Islam. He grew a beard and shaved his head,” a neighbour said.

In Walthamstow, East London, a car chase presaged the action to come. Witnesses saw an unmarked police vehicle chase down a car near Walthamstow dog track before forcing the occupants out at gun point.

Arrests made during the morning included Waheed Zaman, a biochemistry student, and Amin Asmin Tariq, a Heathrow security worker. Mr Zaman, who sat on London Metropolitan University’s Student Council as a representative of the Islamic Society, is well known in the community.

Last night his sister Safeena said: “He loves fish and chips and Liverpool football club and his favourite TV programme is Only Fools and Horses. He even wanted to join the police as a forensics expert. He is a great believer in the importance of integration between our community and the Western world.”

Mr Tariq, who has been working at Heathrow for three years, was led away in handcuffs early yesterday morning, according to witnesses. He wears Western clothes and is “well-respected in the community”, according to neighbours.

Police activity in Birmingham centred on addresses in Bordesley Green and Ward End. Two properties, a suburban home and a shop with lock-up garages, have links to the same family, the Raufs, who run a cake distribution business.

Their terraced home in St Margarets Road, Ward End, where about twenty girls come nightly to learn religion, was being inspected by forensic science officers. The front door had been damaged by the raid.

A local man, whose 12-year-old daughter received lessons in basic Islam at the address, described the residents as “peaceful people”. Ikram Ulhaq said that his daughter went for an hour’s lesson at the address most evenings.

Mr Ulhaq said: “All I know is they are peaceful, religious people. They were teaching Koran and all that to the young kids. I’m shocked, I’m sure they’ve got the wrong people.”

June Lethbridge, 85, said that a family had lived at the property adjacent to her for 12 years but she did not know how many were residents. “They’ve always been very pleasant. As far as I know, most of the family are in Pakistan for a wedding at the moment. I haven’t seen them come back.”

The Raufs are understood to use a lock-up facility in Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green, for their business.

Much police activity yesterday was concentrated on a search of garages at the back of the premises, which are believed to be let by the owner.

Records suggest that the property was sold by Rashid Rauf to another man, Tayib Zaman Rauf, in 2004 for £70,000. During the morning forensic science officers in blue suits focused on at a large end-of-terrace property occupied, according to a neighbour, by a foster family. A mid-terrace house farther down the road was also being guarded. John Weir, 50, has lived for 15 years opposite a rundown Victorian mid-terrace house in Forest Road. His peace was shattered when 20 police appeared shortly before midnight.

“My daughter was looking out of the window which overlooks the street,” Mr Weir said. “She shouted to me that some officers were carrying a battering ram up the street.”

With a single blow they broke down the blue front door. No one was in the home, believed to have been rented out to two men.

The three-storey house, divided into two flats, was bought for £138,000 in cash in July, according to Land Registry records. The next day the property was let to a North African man who appeared to be a Muslim, and another man of Western appearance.

Doreen Cardy, a next-door neighbour in her seventies, said that she was woken by the sound of drilling at the property at about 5am.

Less than a mile away, a man was arrested in a raid at a terraced house.

A fifth Walthamstow property in Ravenswood Road was also raided.

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