NPR

'I Would Do Anything For Her': A German Dad's Search For His Daughter, Taken By ISIS

A German father fights to find and bring home his young daughter, taken by his ex-wife when she went to Syria five years ago with her new husband, an ISIS fighter.
Danisch Farooqi with his daughter Aaliya in Hamburg. "I haven't seen her in five years," he says. He wonders if she has forgotten him.

Five years ago this month, Danisch Farooqi dropped off his daughter Aaliya at her mother's house in the German port city of Hamburg.

He remembers walking the girl, then almost 4, to his ex-wife's front door and hugging her.

"And I said, 'I'll see you next week,' " he recalls.

A few days later, he received a call from an unknown number in Turkey. It was his ex-wife's new husband. He told Farooqi he was in Turkey, recovering from injuries while fighting in Syria. He'd brought the whole family to Turkey, including Aaliya.

"I was shocked," says Farooqi, a native of Hamburg. "I didn't know what [he] was talking about."

He demanded an explanation and threatened to call the police unless Aaliya came home immediately. But the man hung up on him. A month later, Farooqi got a WhatsApp message from his ex-wife, saying they had moved to Syria.

"She said, 'We went

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