“My child was only 15. She was immature” – Isis bride Shamima Begum’s father blames UK for letting her flee to Syria

Isis bride, Shamima Begum’s father has blamed the UK for not stopping his daughter from fleeing the country to Syria to join the Islamist terrorist group there.

During an interview in his Bangladeshi village, Ahmed Ali told the Associated Press that Britain should have done more to stop his daughter fleeing the country when she didn’t even have a passport.

Mr Ali, who lives in the north-eastern Bangladeshi district of Sunamganj with his second wife, said: 

My child was only 15 years old when she fled, she was immature.

He added:

I would ask the British Government not to cancel her citizenship, to return her citizenship, and if she is guilty, bring her back to Britain and give her punishment there.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has revoked Shamima’s UK citizenship, rendering her stateless. Her family has insisted she is not a dual citizen, and the case is pending in the courts.

Mr Ali, 60, said he moved to England in 1975 and returned to his village in Bangladesh in 1990 to marry his first wife, Asma Begum. The couple, who returned to England, have four daughters, with Shamima the youngest. He later returned to Bangladesh and got married for a second time.

Mr Ali criticised the authorities for failing to deal with the issue of students fleeing to Syria to join Isis.

His daughter was 15 when she fled to Syria to marry a Dutch jihadi in 2015. Begum, now 19, resurfaced recently at a refugee camp in Syria and told reporters she wants to come home for the sake of her new baby.

She granted a number of interviews pleading her case, but in one, she sparked uproar after saying she felt the Manchester terror attack in 2017, which killed 23 and injured 139 people, was “justified” because of airstrikes that have killed civilians in Syria.

Criticizing the UK government for the actions of his daughter and other schoolgirls who fled to Syria, Mr Ali said:

One girl went there a month ago, most likely a month ago. The British Government should have been alarmed about the matter, and they should have also inquired at the school to find out how she fled, since she was a student.

Then a month later, three more students fled. The authorities should investigate at the school why these students fled. They were not adults.

The British immigration system is very informed, the most informed system in the world. I always say how did (Shamima) get there using another one’s passport?

She doesn’t even have her own passport. These matters should be investigated as well.

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