First of four missing east London schoolgirls feared to have joined Islamic State is named
THE first of four missing teenage girls from the same east London school, who are now feared to have joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group, has reportedly been named.
The 15-year-old from Bethnal Green Academy was named as Sharmeena Begum and is thought to have fled to Syria in December to fight alongside IS militants, according to The Guardian.
Her friends and former classmates - Amira Abase, 15, Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16 - are now believed to have followed her into the self-declared IS capital of Raqqa, in Syria.
Sharmeena's father is believed to have warned teachers at Bethnal Green, as well as detectives, to "keep an eye" on her three schoolmates after his daughter disappeared, according to the Daily Mail.
Mohammad Uddin told the paper: "I said [to officers], 'Keep an eye on the three girls, maybe they’ll give you a clue'. Shamima, Kadiza, and Amira were her closest friends.
"I was pretty sure when my daughter went missing that the four girls would have gone together. And when I realised [they hadn’t] I was surprised.
"I went to Bethnal Green Academy two days later, on the Monday, and I spoke to the deputy headmistress and I asked to speak to the three girls.
"She told me 'The police are speaking to them so you can’t'."
Do you know who helped those girls?
He also said how he believed his daughter was groomed through her phone by two young women in Syria.
The 38-year-old added: "Every parent should check what their children are doing on their phones at every moment,"
Meanwhile, footage has emerged appearing to show her friends Amira, Shamina and Kadiza in Turkey before they fled over the border to Syria to join IS terrorists.
The clip is believed to have been filmed by an individual who helped them cross the Turkey-Syria border.
In the clip, the teenage Britons can be seen carrying bags and using their mobile phones as they wait by a car with the engine running.
It is believed the footage was taken by the individual arrested by Turkish officials, who is accused of being a foreign spy.
New Footage Of British IS Schoolgirls
The agent in question is said to be a spy working for a country in the US-led coalition fighting against IS militants.
Sources in Turkey said the film was confiscated from the man after the teenage girls were helped across the border into Syria to join the militants.
In an interview published on the official Turkish Anatolia news agency, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Do you know who helped those girls?
"He was captured. He was someone working for the intelligence [service] of a country in the coalition."
It is not known what country the detained man is from, however Mr Cavusoglu reportedly said that the man in question was not American or from an EU state.
The schoolgirls, from the Bethnal Green Academy in east London, triggered a police hunt after they fled their homes and flew from Gatwick Airport to Turkey on February 17.
Other CCTV footage also emerged since the girls' disappearance, appearing to show them waiting at a bus stop in Istanbul.
It was recorded on the day they are thought to have arrived in Turkey.
Earlier this week Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said sorry to the schoolgirls' families.
He apologised after it emerged a letter intended for the families – informing them about another pupil who had travelled to Syria from the girls' school - failed to reach them after officers handed it to their teenage daughters.
While speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, Sir Bernard said he was sorry that the letter "didn't get through".
He said: "In hindsight, we now know that these girls were planning to go and neither the family, the police, the school nor anyone else realised that."
The families' claim that if they had known about the other pupil, they would have been able to prevent their own daughters' fleeing to Syria as well.
