The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

First missing UK schoolgirl named

A missing London schoolgirl who travelled to Syria ahead of her three friends is named as 15-year-old Sharmeena Begum, from Bethnal Green.

 

The initially of four missing London schoolgirls who have travelled to Syria has been named as Sharmeena Begum.

The 15-year-outdated, from Bethnal Inexperienced, is thought to have remaining the British isles in December to sign up for Islamic State (IS) militants.

Sharmeena’s father advised the Daily Mail he had warned instructors at Bethnal Eco-friendly Academy to keep an eye on three of her pals who have considering that disappeared.

Amira Abase, 15, Shamima Begum, fifteen, Kadiza Sultana, sixteen, are now believed to have joined her in Syria.

All four adolescents are thought to be in Raqqa – the headquarters of IS.

‘Not coming back’

Sharmeena Begum’s father Mohammad Uddin instructed the Day by day Mail he had warned the police to observe out for her three schoolmates after his individual daughter went missing, as they were most effective good friends.

Mr Uddin, a waiter at a central London restaurant, instructed the paper: “I claimed [to officers], ‘Keep an eye on the three girls, it’s possible they’ll give you a clue.'”

He also claimed he believed Sharmeena had been groomed by extremists who specific her by means of social media on her mobile phone.

His daughter’s behaviour transformed immediately after her mother died in January 2014 and she produced an intensive fascination in Islam, Mr Uddin explained to the newspaper.

He explained: “I imagined this was usual mainly because she shed the closest individual to her, and she’s an only boy or girl. In advance of then she wasn’t quite religious. She wouldn’t go to the mosque and she would don English costume.

“But then she altered her dressing style and wore a scarf and started off praying 5 periods a working day.”

Mr Uddin thinks his daughter was groomed by two young gals who took her to the airport and built sure she caught the flight to Turkey. She is considered to have been in the nation for a handful of days ahead of travelling on to Syria.

The Everyday Mail documented that two months right after she remaining household, Sharmeena known as her father to say: “I’m in Islamic State and I’m not coming back.”

‘Spy’ arrest

Shamima and Amira, who are each 15, and sixteen-year-previous Kadiza Sultana – all GCSE pupils at Bethnal Inexperienced Academy in east London – remaining their homes on 17 February.

They flew to Istanbul from Gatwick with Turkish Airways and are thought to have travelled to Syria within just times.

New online video footage emerged on Friday evidently demonstrating Amira, Shamima and Kadiza planning to enter the region.

The footage, broadcast by Turkish community A-Haber, looks to present a person supporting the ladies into a car near Turkey’s border with Syria and appears to consist of a reference to Syrian passports.

It is considered to have been shot by a man afterwards arrested for allegedly assisting the trio to cross the border.

Turkey’s international minister has reported the guy is an intelligence worker.

He labored for the intelligence agency of an unspecified nation that is element of the coalition towards IS, according to Mevlut Cavusoglu.

 

 

BULLETIN ECHO