Sunamganj (Bangladesh): The father of British teenager Shamima Begum who ran away to join the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has said his daughter’s citizenship should not be revoked and that she should return to the UK and be punished if it was determined she had committed a crime.
Begum’s father, Ahmed Ali told this agency in an interview Tuesday in his native village here that he would still request that the British government allow his daughter to come back.
“My child was only 15 years old when she fled, she was immature,” said Ali, who lives in the northeastern Bangladeshi district of Sunamganj with his second wife. The area is 181 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.
“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,” added Ali.
Begum fled east London with two friends to travel to Syria to marry IS fighters in 2015. There was no news about her till she resurfaced at a refugee camp in Syria and told reporters recently that she wants to come home. She said she has married a Dutch man who wants to take her to the Netherlands with their newborn son.
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, has four daughters, with Shamima the youngest.
Ali later returned to Bangladesh and got married for a second time. Most recently, he came to Bangladesh two months ago to escape the U.K. winter.
AP
