Last night’s arrest was made at a neat, double-storey Officer home, which has a ‘‘for sale’’ sign at the front. People inside the property this morning refused to speak to Fairfax Media. An Officer home where a man has been arrested over alleged terror links. Credit:Penny Stephens Neighbours in the modern housing development said yesterday’s raid came as a shock. One neighbour said he heard police knocking at the arrested man’s front door at 6am and saw about five police cars. He said he believed the man shared the home with his brother and their wives and worked in insulation.

He said he did not know the arrested man but the brother was friendly. Another neighbour, Trish Bourke, said she was taken aback by the news. ‘‘I’m a bit concerned that I’m living two doors up from a possible terrorist. I’d rather they were caught than not, but I was still a bit surprised,’’ she said. She believed the brothers had lived at the property for about 18 months. This morning, AFP officers continued to search a house in Hallam.

Officers at the scene would not comment on the raid, other than to say they had not made arrests or finished searching the property. At another property in Hallam, which was raided yesterday morning, a woman said her son was innocent and she had no idea why the house had been targeted. A computer and CD were seized from the house. "I don’t know why the police were here,’’ the woman said. "My son does nothing wrong.’’

Police also remain at two houses in Narre Warren South. Officers at the scene would not comment. Police told two men at one of the Narre Warren South houses they would be finished their search as soon as possible. Police are also searching the garages of the properties. There were at least five AFP officers at both houses.

The operation, revealed exclusively last night by theage.com.au, was targeted at individuals connected with the Al-Furqan centre in Springvale. The group soon posted in Bosnian on its Facebook page. ’’The raid took everyone by surprise, someone calling himself Sehzad Goran wrote. ’’I can confirm that local and federal police raided [name withheld] house and prayer place. Currently ASIO (aka, Gestapo) are still going through the house. Agents include women agents also.’’ The centre, which also hosts a bookshop, while not a mosque is associated with fringe Muslim preacher Sheikh Harun, also known as Harun Mehicevic, who is believed to be overseas. The imam of the nearby Bosnian mosque in Noble Park, Ibrahim Omerdic, said Sheikh Harun had led a group of ’’radical followers’’ away from the Noble Park mosque about 10 years ago. Mr Omerdic described Sheikh Harun as a very patriotic Bosnian, but said he had left with a small group of followers and went on to form the Al-Furqan Islamic Centre after doctrinal disagreements.

’’They radicalised matters regarding women and men. He said Muslims were not allowed to vote,’’ he said. Another community source said last night that Sheikh Harun’s ’’following is not large but his teachings are very fiery. He’s a pretty marginalised figure in the Muslim community.’’ The source said the people targeted for the operation were not believed to have been involved in a fully realised terror plot, but were involved in ’’contemplating and getting information’’ about terrorist activities. A search warrant for the Al-Furqan centre says police were looking for material relating to 11 people between the ages of 22 and 40, and information connected to 12 addresses. They were in Narre Warren, Springvale South, Narre Warren South, Officer, Craigieburn, Hallam, Ormond, Endeavour Hills and Noble Park. Most of the properties were raided in the operation, which began early yesterday. The warrant also says police are looking for copies of the infamous al-Qaeda-produced magazine Inspire, which reportedly nominated Sydney as a potential terror target earlier this year. The warrant says the material police are searching for is either connected with terrorist acts or the collecting and making of documents that are ’’likely to facilitate terrorist acts’’.

Loading Sources said the men targeted were Australian residents of mixed cultural backgrounds. One man whose house was raided condemned the police and intelligence services in a Facebook posting. ’’And look at the tactics. They come early in the morning [6am] and break the door of the markaz and about 20-30 come to the door of my neighbour as well. He [the neighbour] is overseas and has no control over what’s happening over here,’’ he wrote. It is believed authorities relied in part on information provided by people from Melbourne’s Islamic community. Police briefed the Islamic Council of Victoria during the raids. ’’I want to commend police for consulting with community figures,’’ said president Ramzi Elsayed. ’’We support the police in their community safety endeavours and that [the operation was] conducted with cultural and religious sensitivity.’’



