Schoolgirl, who 'recruited Shamima Begum' for ISIS at 15, is 'found alive' and arrested in Syria

From the Newshound archive · first published 26 September 2026 · last updated 27 September 2026.

Sharmeena Begum, 27, the Bethnal Green schoolgirl responsible for drawing Shamima Begum into ISIS, has been arrested at a hideout in Syria after German investigators connected her to July's Berlin Pride massacre. German police tracked her down after establishing that she had exchanged messages with the attacker Abdul Ballout, who drove a van into Pride crowds, killing one woman, before being shot dead. Her father Mohammed Nizam Uddin said police and the government had told him nothing for years.

Ballout sent Sharmeena a loyalty oath video allegedly intended to be passed to ISIS's propaganda chief for release following the Berlin attack.

Sharmeena departed her east London home for Syria in December 2014 at the age of 15, having been radicalised in the wake of her mother's death from cancer in 2013.

Her father said: 'I thought she had been killed in Syria — I am relieved that she is at least alive.'