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Husbands make tearful appeal for wives and children feared to be in Syria Husbands make tearful appeal for wives and children feared to be in Syria
(34 minutes later)
The husbands of two sisters feared to have travelled to Syria with a third sibling and their nine children have made a tearful appeal for their family to contact them.The husbands of two sisters feared to have travelled to Syria with a third sibling and their nine children have made a tearful appeal for their family to contact them.
Akhtar Iqbal and Muhammad Shoaib appeared tired and shaken as they held a press conference in Bradford, West Yorkshire, seven days after 12 members of the Dawood family severed contact with them and boarded a flight from Saudi Arabia to Istanbul, Turkey.Akhtar Iqbal and Muhammad Shoaib appeared tired and shaken as they held a press conference in Bradford, West Yorkshire, seven days after 12 members of the Dawood family severed contact with them and boarded a flight from Saudi Arabia to Istanbul, Turkey.
Iqbal, dressed in a black hooded sweater, wept as he pleaded for his wife Sugra Dawood, 34, and their five children, aged three to 15, to call him.Iqbal, dressed in a black hooded sweater, wept as he pleaded for his wife Sugra Dawood, 34, and their five children, aged three to 15, to call him.
“Please contact me and please, please call me,” he said. “It’s been eight, nine days you have been out and we don’t know where you are. We miss you. I love you. All of you, I love you a lot. I can’t live without you.”“Please contact me and please, please call me,” he said. “It’s been eight, nine days you have been out and we don’t know where you are. We miss you. I love you. All of you, I love you a lot. I can’t live without you.”
Shoaib, dressed in a blue checked shirt, echoed his brother-in-law’s sentiments as he addressed his wife, Khadija Dawood, and their two children, aged seven and five.Shoaib, dressed in a blue checked shirt, echoed his brother-in-law’s sentiments as he addressed his wife, Khadija Dawood, and their two children, aged seven and five.
“Please come back and contact me. I’m not angry, I’m not angry, I’m not fine, please come back, everything is normal. Come back to normal life please. They’re young kids,” he said.“Please come back and contact me. I’m not angry, I’m not angry, I’m not fine, please come back, everything is normal. Come back to normal life please. They’re young kids,” he said.
The missing family travelled to Saudi Arabia on 28 May for an Islamic pilgrimage and had been due to come back to the UK last Thursday. There has been no contact with them since 9 June.The missing family travelled to Saudi Arabia on 28 May for an Islamic pilgrimage and had been due to come back to the UK last Thursday. There has been no contact with them since 9 June.
The missing are Khadija Dawood, 30, and her children Maryam Siddiqui, seven, and Muhammad Haseeb, five; Sugra Dawood, 34, and her children Junaid Ahmed Iqbal, 15, Ibrahim Iqbal, 14, Zaynab Iqbal, eight, Mariya Iqbal, five, and Ismaeel Iqbal, three; and Zohra Dawood, 33, her children Haafiyah Binte Zubair, eight, and Nurah Binte Zubair, five. Zohra Dawood’s husband does not currently reside in the UK.
Balaal Khan, a solicitor representing Iqbal and Shoaib, told the press conference police have confirmed all 12 boarded the flight to Istanbul. It was initially thought only 10 had travelled to Turkey.
Earlier on Tuesday, Khan had complained the family had received little help from the police, leaving them to investigate the disappearances “off their own backs”. But he told the press conference that West Yorkshire police has addressed some of the concerns during an extensive meeting.
“The fathers, as you can imagine, are deeply concerned with the welfare of the children, their wives,” Khan said. “It’s been an extremely difficult time for the family members.”
Alyas Karmani, a local councillor for the Respect party, told the Guardian the sisters and their children were all born in Bradford and grew up there but that their parents are from a conservative Pashtun community on the north-west frontier of Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
Karmani said he understood British police knew the sisters’ brother had gone to Syria two years ago and were monitoring the family.
But Khan denied claims made by Karmani that the marriages had broken down. “These men absolutely deny that, they had normal, happy and loving relationships with their wives. They were a happily married couple and these reports are false.”
Police have not yet searched the family homes, Khan said, and had advised the men not to travel to Turkey themselves because of “safety issues”.
Khan said the fathers had also questioned how the three women had the funds to pay for 12 Turkish Airlines tickets to Istanbul from Medina. But at this stage, he added, he did not have any indication anyone had been helping them, or that they had made any contact with a brother of the Dawood sisters, believed to already be Syria.
Two of the nine children attended a school where a teacher was stabbed last week. Brothers Junaid and Ibrahim Iqbal had been pupils at Dixons Kings academy before they went to Saudi Arabia with their mother.