A mother who was suspected of trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS with her four children has been arrested after returning to the UK.
Zahera Tariq, 33, was detained in Turkey on Tuesday along with her sons Muhammad, 12, Amaar, 11, Aadid, four and nine-year-old daughter Safiyyah.
The Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command arrested Tariq on suspicion of child abduction yesterday evening after she disembarked a flight from Istanbul to Luton Airport.
Her four children - who were earlier this week reported to be ‘safe and well’ - have been taken into police protection.
The woman and her four children were reported missing from their home in Walthamstow, north east London last week.
Counter-terrorism officers launched an appeal for information about Tariq and her children after her husband Yasair Mahmmood, 42, contacted police last Wednesday to report them missing.
They were believed to have flown from London City Airport to Amsterdam on August 25.
Detectives later found the family had been captured on CCTV at London City Airport before boarding the flight to the Netherlands.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) have today arrested a 33-year-old woman at Luton Airport on suspicion of child abduction.
‘The woman was arrested at approximately 7.45pm as she was entering the UK, having just disembarked a flight from Istanbul, Turkey.
‘Her four children with whom she was travelling were taken into police protection. Inquiries continue.’
Several cases have emerged in which women and children from the UK are feared to have gone to parts of Syria controlled by the so-called Islamic State.
Scotland Yard recently confirmed that it believed more than 40 women and girls had travelled to Syria from Britain in the last year.