UK faces questions over Indian-origin ISIS suspect

The UK government is facing tough questions over how a 32-year-old Indian-origin Islamic State suspect was able to skip bail and escape to Syria, with Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham saying “something has clearly gone very seriously wrong.” 

Siddhartha Dhar, who now goes by his Islamic name of Abu Rumaysah, was on Tuesday revealed as the key suspect behind an IS video threatening to attack the UK. 

He had fled Britain in 2014 with his wife and four children to join the IS in Syria.

The Indian-origin British Muslim convert had been repeatedly arrested on anti-terror charges but fled the UK 15 months ago after police failed to secure his passport.

A Scotland Yard letter, sent to Dhar at his London address six weeks after he had already left for Syria, asked him to “surrender all travel documents at Charing Cross police station by 23:00 on 03/10/14”.

But by then, Dhar had already absconded with his wife and four children to France en route to Syria.

“It is clear he had left the country long before this letter was sent. The system has failed because it allowed him to abscond to Syria.

“He was well-known to the authorities having been arrested six times on terrorism related offences. Something has clearly gone very seriously wrong,” said UK Shadow 

Home Secretary Andy Burnham, as he presented the letter in the House of Commons.

A shadow minister is a politician who is a member of the Opposition and has been appointed to speak about how an alternative government would do things differently.

Dhar was ordered to hand in his passport as part of his bail conditions but was not accompanied by a police officer to ensure he complied with the conditions.

On his arrival in Syria, he wrote on Twitter: “What a shoddy security system Britain must have to allow me to breeze through Europe to the Islamic State.”