Shakil Ahmed: Police search home of Labour councillor whose 'Syria-bound' son was detained in Turkey
Mr Ahmed represents the Kingsway ward on Rochdale Borough Council
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Your support makes all the difference.Police have searched the home of a Labour councillor, after his son was arrested on the Turkish border with Syria as he allegedly attempted to illegally enter the war-torn country.
Shakil Ahmed yesterday said he was “shocked” and “extremely upset” when he was alerted that Turkish security forces arrested his son and four other Britons in Hatay province on Wednesday.
Officers were today at the home of Mr Ahmed, who represents the Kingsway ward on Rochdale Borough Council.
Mr Ahmed’s son, Waheed, is among a group of five adults and four children being returned to the UK from Turkey. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said officers were trying to establish their reason for travelling to the Syrian border.
Although it is unclear why the group decided to go to Syria, 600 people from the UK are believed to have travelled there to join militant groups such as Isis since the current conflict began. About half of them have returned.
The group includes two women aged 47 and 22, three men aged 24, 22 and 21, and four children aged one, three, eight and 11, GMP said.
The councillor said that Waheed's aunt, Zadia Bi, two of Zadia's sons and one of the son's wives among those arrested. But Mr Ahmed said yesterday that he believed that his son was on a work placement in Birmingham, and told the Daily Mail that he thought the rest of the family were on holiday.
“All I know is that they were on holiday and then the next thing I am told is that they have been arrested,” he said, insisting Waheed "is a good Muslim and his loyalties belong to Britain."
“[Waheed is] studying a degree in politics and sociology at Manchester University and has a good future ahead of him. I just want to speak to my son and get him home as soon as possible so I can find out what's going on.”
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has said it was providing consular assistance but was unable to confirm when the nine people, who are related, would reach British soil.
GMP said it had uncovered “no evidence whatsoever” of any imminent threat to the Rochdale community or elsewhere in the UK. It added that officers were working closely with Rochdale Borough Council and faith leaders as part of the Prevent initiative, which aims to divert young Muslims away from terrorism and violent extremism.
Usman Nawaz, who went to the same school as Waheed Ahmed in Rochdale and was a former member of a panel called the Young Muslims Advisory Group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the “constant drip-feeding of British Muslims from this country” into Isis's so-called Islamic State needed to be addressed.
“For some it's an adventure but for some they think that they are doing something noble,” said Nawaz, who was a mentor to young Muslims through the Youth Council of Rochdale.
"The ideology which is peddled, this very hardcore understanding of the faith, one which is state sponsored by Saudi Arabia, that has to be challenged and it's quite difficult to challenge it in a coherent manner when the Saudi ideology has the backing of petrodollars.
"There are mosques in this country which are funded with petrodollars. However, mosques in Rochdale, from what I understand, don't have a problem of radicalisation and extremism."
Mr Nawaz, who is, said he did not think his former school could be blamed for Waheed Ahmed's actions.
He said: "I don't believe the school necessarily has anything to do with the path he has taken now.
"I'm of that same generation of young British Muslims; I'm 25 and I have not been radicalised."
Additional reporting by PA