THE fathers of a group of children feared to have been taken to Syria to join Isil by their mothers made a desperate plea for their return last night.
Mohammed Shoaib and Akhtar Iqbal broke down in tears as they begged their missing wives to bring their children, one of whom is just three, back to the UK.
They said they feared that sisters Khadija and Sugra Dawood, along with a third sibling, Zohra, had disappeared to Syria along with nine children.
The group, all from Bradford, have not been heard from for a week after failing to return from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, and the women are suspected of trying to join a younger brother who is allegedly fighting with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
West Yorkshire Police was yesterday facing questions over its handling of the case and over how the sisters of a suspected extremist were able to travel abroad freely.
Their brother, Ahmed Ali Dawood, 21, is believed to have been in Syria for between one and two years and is understood to have been known to police and MI5. It is feared he has been in contact with his sisters and encouraged them also to join Isil.
In an emotional press conference Mr Iqbal, the husband of Sugra and father of their five children, aged three to 15, said: “I can’t live without you. Please, please come back home.
“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.” Mr Shoaib, whose wife Khadija disappeared with their two children, five-year-old Muhammad Haseeb and Maryam Siddiqui, seven, said he would go and collect them wherever they were.
“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.
“I’m not angry, please come back, everything is normal, come back to normal life please.”
The husband of Zohra, who vanished with their two children, was not at the press conference, in Bradford, because he lives overseas.
The three sisters and their children were last heard from on June 8 in Saudi Arabia. Mr Shoaib’s children told him they missed and loved him and could not wait to get home.
But it has since emerged the party of 12 boarded a flight to Istanbul in Turkey the next day before apparently heading for Syria. Friends believe someone met them in Turkey and helped them over the border.
Missing as well as Ismaeel are Mr Iqbal’s four other children, Mariya, five, Zaynab, eight, Ibrahim, 14 and Junaid Ahmed, 15.
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 contact with me. 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.
“I am worried about my daughters. Please call me. 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 added: “We’ve been married 11 years, and we were in a perfect relationship, she knew it; please come back.”
He said: “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.
“Wherever you are, I will come and bring you home, there’s no problem.” He wept during his statement and then sat with his face in his hands.
The fathers’ lawyer, Balaal Khan, said there was “no inkling” that anything was wrong within the families.
Alyas Karmani, a local councillor for the Respect party, claimed the sisters had been unhappy in their marriages, which were arranged in the ultra-conservative Pathan community of Islam.
The sister’s father is a former imam in Bradford. But Mr Khan denied the claims and said the relationships were strong.
West Yorkshire Police confirmed yesterday that the case had been adopted by the regional counter-terrorism squad, after six days of the investigation being led by regular officers.
Mr Khan said the men had been advised by officers not to fly abroad themselves in an attempt to bring their families home. He said police had said there would be “clear safety issues” if the husbands attempted to follow in their families’ footsteps.
Earlier, the solicitor had confirmed the families had “grave concerns” that they were having to make inquiries about the missing children “off their own backs”.
Mr Khan also confirmed that no police searches had yet taken place of the families’ homes.