The fathers of children believed to have been taken to Syria by their mothers have made an emotional appeal for their wives to return to Britain, with one saying: 'I can't live without you'.
In a dramatic press conference in which the two husbands begged for information about their missing families, Mohammad Shoaib told his wife Khadija Dawood: 'Please come back. Come back to normal life please.'
He was joined by Akhtar Iqbal, who wept as he urged wife Sugra Dawood, 34, to 'please come home with the kids'.
Appealing directly to his family, he said: 'All of you, I can't live without you.'
The husbands' teary messages came amid fears that the missing dozen - which includes three sisters and their nine children - have fled to the Middle East to join ISIS.
The three women, whose children are aged between three and 15, went missing after going on an Islamic pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia from their homes in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
The husband of the third sister, 33-year-old Zohra Dawood, is in Pakistan and was not at the press conference.
Mr Iqbal - whose five children Ismaeel, three, Mariya, five, Zaynab, eight, Ibrahim, 14 and Junaid Ahmed, 15, are among those missing - added: 'Please, please contact with me. Please, please call me. It's been eight, nine days, you are out and we don't know where you are. I miss you, I love you.'
He made a special appeal to his eldest son, Junaid, saying: 'You are 15. Please, if you watch this video, please ring me. Please contact me. I love all of you and I can't live without you.'
Mr Shoaib, whose children five-year-old Muhammad Haseeb and Maryam Siddiqui, seven, are missing, added: 'Please come back home with the kids, I know the kids can't live without me and you, please bring them home, they can't live without me.
'We've been married 11 years, and we were in a perfect relationship, she knew it, please come back.'
He added: 'I'm not angry, please come back, everything is normal, come back to normal life please. They are young kids, seven and five. We had a perfect relationship, we had a lovely family, I don't know what happened. Please contact me whenever you want.'
Police believe the three sisters may have followed in the footsteps of their brother, who travelled to Syria to fight for ISIS two years ago.
The family's lawyer Balaal Khan said he believed a police investigation into the women's brother had begun before the family went missing but declined to comment further.
Mr Khan said there was 'no inkling' that anything was wrong within the family.
He said: 'There was no indication whatsoever from family members, even while in Saudi Arabia, they were in regular contact.'
He added: 'The family members are law-abiding citizens, there's never been any trouble, never been any suggestion of radicalisation, The children were going to school, doing everything normally.'
Mr Khan said the family are 'non-political' and follow 'a moderate version of Islam'
The solicitor said the fathers of the children had no contact with their brother-in-law but asked him to get in touch if the family were with him.
Mr Khan said the family had discussed the possibility of travelling to Turkey to try to find the sisters and children but police had advised against it.
He said: 'West Yorkshire Police advised strongly against that course of action. The families feel helpless here.'
He added: 'There are clearly safety issues, unfortunately I have to agree with West Yorkshire Police.'
The sisters had been expected to return home to Bradford last Thursday but officers believe they instead boarded flights to Istanbul in Turkey two days earlier.
The last photos of the missing families show them smiling happily at the airport before their trip to Saudi Arabia.
Family photos released today show the youngsters now feared to be living in the terrrorist stronghold digging in their garden, riding their bikes in the street and tucking into cake before they went to the Middle East.
Mr Khan said the 15-year-old boy was acting as the family's mahram - an appropriate male responsible for the family - during the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
He also confirmed that the husband of one of the women is in Pakistan.
The terraced home where the Dawood family are believed to have lived with their father Muhammad was apparently unoccupied yesterday. Curtains were drawn and the door was unanswered.
Local residents described a nice and courteous family who didn't regularly interact with their neighbours.
Samina Begum said: 'They didn't speak to anyone really and were a really close-knit family. I think they didn't really want to interact.'
Desmond Fernandez said: 'It's not something that you would expect to happen on your street. They were a normal family. They seemed like a close family.'
Bradford West Labour MP Naz Shah said she had spoken to two of the children's fathers and described them as 'confused', adding that they had had no contact with the women or children.
She told the BBC: 'I asked them if there was any indication and they said absolutely not - it was a shock to them, it came out of the blue.
'The men are very, very distraught. They are confused and did not know what was happening or why it was happening.'
Ms Shah added: 'At this time there is no contact, absolutely zero contact with the women or children. The last contact was a few days ago when they were due to leave.'
If the family's fears are confirmed, they would be the largest family to have travelled to join ISIS from the UK if they have fled to Syria.
Last night a family friend revealed the sisters had been under surveillance for a 'long period' after their brother went to Syria around two years ago.
The friend said: 'The girls and the whole family knew they were being watched by the police and security services. It was an open secret.
'Their brother went to fight in Syria about a couple of years back. Knowing they were being watched so closely may have helped them make their decision to leave for good.'
Mr Khan, the lawyer acting for the fathers of the missing children, said yesterday that the sisters left the UK on May 28 to go on an Islamic pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
They were supposed to return on June 11 but boarded a flight from Medina in Saudi Arabia to Istanbul – a route used by many entering Syria to join the extremists.
Last night Mr Khan said: '[The fathers] are concerned that their children's lives are in danger. The concern is for the well-being and safety of the children.
'The fathers are distraught, they feel helpless and they don't know what to do. They want the children out of harm's way.'
The lawyer added that the sisters and their children have not been in contact for almost a week.
It comes after 17-year-old Talha Asmal, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was reported to have become Britain's youngest suicide bomber.
And Thomas Evans, a Muslim convert from Buckinghamshire, is believed to have died in Kenya fighting for extremist group Al Shabaab.
In February, east London schoolgirls Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, and Kadiza Sultana, travelled to Syria via Turkey.
By Richard Spillett, Christian Gysin and Chris Brooke
