News / Anira Khokhar
Family plea for missing girl to come home
The family of a missing girl from Easton who police say may have tried to travel to war-torn Syria have pleaded for her to come home.
An international hunt is under way for 15-year-old Yusra Hussien, who left her family home last Wednesday apparently after telling her parents she was away on a school trip.
Police say she travelled to London before heading to Istanbul, Turkey. They are now working with Scotland Yard anti-terrorist police and Turkish authorities to try to find if she crossed the border into Syria.
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Hibaq Jama, Labour councillor for Lawrence Hill ward, read out an appeal to Yusra from her family, which said: “Please come back. We miss you very much. You’re not in any trouble. We just want you to be safe and come home as soon as possible.”
Avon and Somerset police say there are indications the City Academy student “may have been radicalised”.
But a spokeswoman for the family yesterday attempted to end the “speculation” over the reason’s for the girl’s disappearance. She added the family was upset at the media camped outside their home off Stapleton Road.
Anira Khokhar told gathered reporters: “At the moment, all the words flying around in the media about jihadists, radicalisation, are just speculation. At the moment there is no proof and when information is revealed the media will be told.”
Speaking about the girl’s parents and siblings, she said: “They are just a family whose daughter is in danger. They are very distraught but upset about the media camped outside their house.”
Friends said British-born Yusra, who had ambitions of becoming a dentist, had appeared “perfectly normal” in the days leading up to her disappearance.
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