Shamima Begum And Friends: Who were Shamima Begum’s friends?

In February 2015, at the age of 15, she and her pals Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase departed the UK. To join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, they travelled through Turkey.

Before helping Ms Begum and her two friends, Rasheed oversaw the Turkish portion of this network and assisted British men, women, and children in travelling to IS for at least eight months.

In an interview with the BBC podcast I’m Not A Monster, Ms Begum said, “He organized the entire trip from Turkey to Syria,”. Without the aid of smugglers, I doubt anyone would have reached Syria.

Shamima Begum And Friends: Who were Shamima Begum’s friends?

In February 2015, Shamima Begum, then 15 years old, Amira Abase, also 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, all British students at Bethnal Green Academy, abandoned their homes in East London.

To join Isis terrorists, the teenagers took a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul in Turkey and then crossed into Syria. The trio appeared to breeze through security according to CCTV footage published by the Met Police.

The girls exploited lax rules controlling unaccompanied children flying internationally, leading to a massive search in Turkey.

Around the time of their abduction, hundreds of Isis supporters had travelled to Syria to join the group, and British citizens were concerned that they would return as terrorists.

Straight-A students, and their terrified relatives desperately begged the girls to come back home, but to no effect.

They added that there were no indications that their girls were considering radicalism or had travel plans.

It was revealed that after a close friend of theirs from the academy, a 15-year-old girl, ran away to Syria, police had spoken to Shamima, Amira, and Kadiza.