British family of seven believed to have joined Daesh

Assistant chief constable Russ Foster said the family travelled from Manchester airport to Antalya on 6 October and were reported missing on Tuesday.

They are believed to have travelled to Turkey and their current whereabouts are unknown The missing people are 39 year old Imran Ameen, his wife, Farzana Ameen (40 years) both from the Bradford area and their 5 children aged between 5- 15 years.

The family are from Bradford and were all last seen on October 5.

United Kingdom police have launched an inquiry after a Pakistani-origin family of seven based in the north of England went missing and is feared to be on its way to Syria.

“Lines of enquiry are now being progressed with the Turkish authorities, a primary concern is the safety and welfare of the young children and the safe return of the family”.

“Any piece of information, no matter how small, could help the United Kingdom or overseas authorities to locate the family so that they can be safely returned home to their loved ones”.

Back in April, Turkish security forces arrested a British family of six, who were seeking to cross the border into violence-plagued Syria and join the ranks of the Daesh Takfiri militant group.

He said: “But when you don’t hear anything at all for a while, the rest of the family hadn’t heard anything, doubts start coming into your mind, and as soon as I saw police here, I knew”.

Farzana Ameen recently travelled to Pakistan with her mother, who has health issues, to leave her in the care of relatives.

Arshid Siddique, a relative who lives on the same street, described Mr Ameen as a quiet and nice guy and said the close knit street had been left in shock.

Mrs Ameen’s cousin said she had contacted her own brother in Pakistan telling him they were doing it for the children. Mr Siddique said that her brother was “heartbroken” at what had happened. She is said to have told family members she is doing what is “best for the kids”, without revealing her location.

Mr Ahmed told BBC Radio Leeds: “I think West Yorkshire Police are right in making an appeal to the community and if there is anyone in the community who has information about the whereabouts of this family it’s important that they give that information to the police so the police can do whatever needs to be done to make sure the children are safe”.

He continued: “I think it was maybe a week and then the cops turned up”. He said he had been assured by police that they were still treating it as a missing persons case rather than a counter-terrorism investigation.

Mr Siddique said the family prayed five times a day but neither adults were particularly religious.

He said Farzana did not wear a face veil and had more English friends than Asian ones however he said their eldest girl, aged 15, was pulled out of school for home education. “We should have seen the signs”.

“I hope they haven’t got into Syria and then there’s still a chance”.

Earlier this year, Khadija Dawood, 30, Sugra Dawood, 34, and Zohra Dawood, 33, also from Bradford, went missing after going on an Islamic pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia along with their nine children.

Many of those travelling from the United Kingdom to Syria go to territories under the control of Islamic State, who have seized large swaths of the war-torn country and its neighbour Iraq. “Our main concern is the safeguarding of the five children”.