Did IS-loving sister lure mum and her 4 children to Syria?
A MOTHER may have been lured to join Islamic State with her four children by her militant younger sister.
Police across Europe are in a desperate race against time to stop Zahera Tariq, 33, crossing the border into war-torn Syria.
Investigators suspect she may have been persuaded to join the murderous militants by her sister, who fled Britain last September.
Aisha Tariq, 30, travelled with her extremist husband Siddhartha Dhar and their four children, and is believed to be in the IS stronghold of Raqqa. The two women are suspected of playing a role in the women’s branch of Islam4UK, the now banned Islamist group founded by radical preacher Anjem Choudary.
Speaking last night, the women’s older sister said she had disowned the pair.
Health worker Azra Ahmed, 35, who lives in Cardiff, said: ‘I’m not interested in knowing where my sisters are.
‘I don’t speak to them any more as their
‘She’s very traditional’
beliefs are different to mine. I don’t like their ways. I still keep in contact with my parents and I saw them at the beginning of the summer.’
Counter-terrorist police suspect Zahera is trying to take a similar ‘under the radar’ route to Turkey to her sister, who fled on a coach via Paris. Dhar marked their arrival in Syria by posting a photograph online of himself holding an assault rifle and his infant son.
Investigators have alerted forces across the continent after Zahera flew to Amsterdam via London City Airport last week.
Her husband Yasair Mahmmood, 42, alerted police when he discovered that his wife had disappeared with their children.
Police released CCTV images of Zahera at the airport. She can be seen pushing a trolley with four large items of luggage. Each of her children – Muhammad, 12, Amaar, 11, Safiyyah, nine, and Aadid, four – carried a rucksack.
Zahera is believed to have continued her journey from Holland but could have taken several routes and used various methods of transport.
Police in several countries are examining passenger manifests, CCTV footage, banking records and mobile phone data.
Scotland Yard is hopeful she can still be stopped before crossing into terrorist-controlled Syria and northern Iraq. They suspect she is aiming to join her sister and Dhar, 32, who is a high-ranking figure in IS. He fled the UK just days after being arrested for terror-related offences.
Zahera was last seen at her housing association home in Walthamstow, East London, last Tuesday.
Khalil Muhammadi, who lived opposite the family for a decade, said: ‘The three boys and the girl were very chatty, very nice, smiley faces. It’s shocking news.’
Neighbour Luc Nonga, 25, said: ‘They’re a really quiet family, especially the mother. She’s very traditional, the family are clearly deeply religious. The children wear traditional clothes to the mosque. But they’re lovely kids.
‘I never expected anything like this to happen – I had no idea. I saw them all playing in the garden just a few weeks ago – they’re very happy children and seemed a normal family.’