Scotland Yard detectives are working with Dutch officials in an international hunt for a family of five from east London who are feared to be travelling to join the Islamic State.
Zahera Tariq, 33, and her four children aged four to 12 were last seen on Tuesday passing through London City airport on their way to the Netherlands. On Sunday, five days since they left the UK, the Metropolitan police said officers were engaged in “extensive inquiries with authorities in the Netherlands” about the family’s whereabouts. The Foreign Office said it had no information about their location.
Tariq’s husband, Yasair Mahmmood, 42, was reported at the weekend to be in hospital in the UK after his existing health problems were worsened by shock at his family’s departure. Police said a family member, believed to be Mahmmood, raised the alarm on Wednesday when he discovered they had gone. Mahmmood was last seen by a neighbour at the family’s terraced home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Walthamstow at around 5.20am on Wednesday. On Sunday, no one was home, the curtains were partially drawn and washing up was left by the sink.
Commander Richard Walton from the Met’s counter-terrorism command said he had “some concerns that Zahera may be thinking of travelling to Syria”, but a spokesman would not say why.
Friends spoke on Sunday of their deepening shock at the family’s abrupt departure and fears for the safety of the young children.
One neighbour told the Guardian that Tariq was “very, very religious” and that despite there being schools just yards away, the children were educated in Bethnal Green, travelling there daily by bus or car, for Islamic teaching. Another said they were being home-schooled, but not at their own home.
“She is my friend,” said Isabella Mbombo, 46, a carer who lives next door and who said she had known Tariq for seven years. “I am very sad about this news, very said for the children. They are normal boys, no different from anyone else.”
Tariq’s eldest boys, Muhammad, 12, and Amaar, 11, used to play regularly with Mbombo’s nine-year-old son on his Playstation 4 and in the nearby gardens, she said. She described Tariq as a “calm, kind” person who spoke good English and talked a lot about her family. She had relatives in Pakistan. Friends said she often wore a niqab veil showing only her eyes.
“My boy is very sad,” she said. “He is always asking where they have gone.”
Far from the family withdrawing as their departure approached, Mbombo said the children had become more sociable in the past two month. Last Monday, the day before the family left, Mbombo said several Pakistani people in smart traditional Asian dress came to the house carrying flowers, as if there were some kind of family occasion.
“I am asking myself how can she do this,” said Mbombo. “She was calm and she liked children. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Walton said: “We’re concerned about Zahera and her four children and we’re doing all we can [...] to try to locate them and make sure they are all safe and well. Her family are extremely worried and we would urge anybody with information to contact us as soon as possible.”
Earlier this year, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London estimated that as many as 600 Britons had gone to join Sunni militant organisations in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. About 100 are thought to be women and girls. Three sisters from Bradford set off with nine children in June and three girls from Bethnal Green went in March, two of them telling their families they had married IS militants.
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said the youngest boy, Aadid, four, was timid and sweet and that what had happened wasvery sad. “I feel sorry for the kids and you have got to think their lives have just been taken away from them,” she said.
Her also played with the Tariq boys on the swings and merry-go-round at the nearby park and she said the boys were funny and likeable.
Detectives issued a description of the group: “Zahera is described as an Asian woman of medium build, approximately 5ft 3ins tall, with long black hair. Her oldest son, Muhammad, is 12 years old and is said to be of medium build, approximately 5ft tall and has medium-length black hair. Her second son, Amaar, is 11 years old, with a skinny build and medium-length black hair. Her daughter, Safiyyah, is nine years old, of skinny build and long black hair. Her youngest son, Aadid, is four years old and has black hair.”