Tearful plea for return of missing children
Husbands beg sisters feared to be joining extremists in Syria
THE husbands of two of the three British sisters feared to have taken their nine children to Syria wept as they begged their families to come home.
Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib broke down as they pleaded desperately for the group to return so they can resume their “normal lives”.
Khadija Dawood, 30, Sugra Dawood, 34, and Zohra Dawood, 33, whose children are aged between three and 15, disappeared after going on an Islamic pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia from their homes in B r ad for d, West Yorkshire.
Fears are mounting that the group are attempting to join up with extremists in Syria.
Claims have emerged that a police investigation into the women’s brother, who is thought to be in the country already, may have begun before the family went missing.
Both Mr Iqbal and Mr Shoaib were overcome with emotion during a press conference as they appealed directly to their missing relatives.
Mr Iqbal’s five children – Ismaeel, three, Mariya, five, Zaynab, eight, Ibrahim, 14 and Junaid Ahmed, 15 – are among those who disappeared, along with his wife Sugra.
He said: “I would like to appeal to my family. To my wife Sugra and my sons Junaid, Ibrahim, Ismaeel and my daughters Zaynab and Mariya.
“Please, please call me. It’s been eight, nine days, you are out and we don’t know where you are.
“I miss you, I love you. All of you, I love you a lot. I can’t live without you. To my family, please, please call me (so) at least I know where you are, are you safe?
“Especially my three-year-old son Ismaeel. I am worried about my daughters. Especially Junaid. You are 15. Please, if you watch this video, please ring me. Please contact me. I love all of you and I can’t live without you.
“Please, Mariya, I love you. I don’t know what to say, I’m shaking. I miss you. It’s been too many days.
“Please come back home so we can live a normal life. There’s nothing wrong. I miss you.
“That’s all I want to say. I want them back.”
Mr Shoaib’s children, five-yearold Muhammad Haseeb and Maryam Siddiqui, seven, are missing. He appealed directly to Khadija, his wife of 11 years.
“Please come back home with the kids. I know the kids can’t live without me and you. Please bring them home. They can’t live without me,” he said. “We’ve been married 11 years, and we were in a perfect relationship, she knew it, please come back.”
He added: “I’m not angry, please come back, everything is normal, come back to normal life please.
“They are young kids, seven and five. We had a perfect relationship, we had a lovely family. I don’t know what happened. Please contact me whenever you want.”
He wept during his statement and then sat with his face in his hands, breaking down again when family solicitor Balaal Khan described his last contact with his daughter.
“It was really his daughter saying ‘Daddy, I love you, I want to see you’,” he said.
Mr Khan said he believed a police investigation into the women’s brother, who is thought to be in Syria, had begun before the family went missing. “It’s currently under investigation by the police, it would be inappropriate to comment,” he said, adding: “I believe it is an ongoing investigation from before the family went missing.”
Police have declined to confirm or deny reports that the family were under police surveillance before their departure.
The Dawood sisters travelled to Medina with their nine children on May 28 to pilgrimage.
They were due to return to the UK on June 11, but broke off all contact with their family in Britain two days earlier on June 9.
Preliminary inquiries suggest the group of 12 boarded a flight to Turkey that day. Since then, their mobile phones have been turned off and Facebook and WhatsApp profiles have not been updated.
go on
a
religious