Missing family from Bradford believed to be heading to Syria

Imran Ameen, 39, his wife, Farzana Amee, 40, and their five children, aged between five and 15, were last seen on 5 October

A Turkish soldier stands guard near the Syrian border. File photo (Getty Images)

A family of seven from the Bradford area have gone missing and are believed to have travelled to Turkey, police have said.

Imran Ameen, 39, and his wife, Farzana Amee, 40, and their five children, aged between five and 15, were last seen on 5 October, but were only reported missing on Tuesday.

West Yorkshire Police did not say if they were thought to be travelling to Syria, but Turkey is on the main route for people seeking to enter Isis-controlled territory in the war-torn country.

Assistant Chief Constable Russ Foster, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “We would urge anyone with information about the family’s whereabouts to come forward and speak to police so the family can safely return to the UK.

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

Officers are speaking to relatives who are still in the UK and are also in touch with the Turkish authorities.

“A primary concern is the safety and welfare of the young children and the safe return of the young family,” police said in a statement.

“The family would like to appeal to the media to respect their privacy at this upsetting time.”

A spokesman for the force said that police would not be releasing any more information about the case.

According to police, at least 700 British people have gone to join or live under jihadist groups, usually Isis, in either Syria or Iraq, but about half have since returned to the UK. In June, it emerged three sisters from Bradford, Khadija Dawood, 30, Sugra Dawood, 34, and Zohra Dawood, 33, and their nine children, aged between three and 15, had travelled to Turkey. They were thought to have then entered Syria to join Isis.

Two of their husbands, Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib, later held a tearful press conference urging them to get in touch. Mr Iqbal, who has five children and is married to Surgra, said at the time: “I am shaking. It’s been too many days.

“I don’t know where you are. Please come back home, so we can live [a] normal life. Please, please come back home … I love you, all of you.”

A friend of Zohra Dawood, speaking anonymously to BBC News, said the missing woman had told her she “didn’t like the UK”.

The friend said that Ms Dawood told her she “didn’t want her daughters to grow up in England” because the country was becoming “more like America”.

Shukee Begum, a 33-year-old law graduate from Oldham, travelled to Isis-controlled territory in Syria with her five children, but subsequently fled to an area controlled by a different rebel group.

She later reportedly said that under Isis “everything… takes ages, except killing, that’s done very quickly”.

Ms Begum said she had gone to Syria last year to try to persuade her husband, a jihadi fighter, to leave Isis.

She failed and Isis threatened to force her children to stay with their husband, so she escaped with the aid of a smuggler.