A suspected extremist is walking Britain’s streets despite being arrested on the Syrian border.

Waheed Ahmed, 21, and eight relatives, including a one-year-old, were picked up by Turkish police who feared they planned to join the Islamic State terror group.

They were all deported and Ahmed, a student whose father is a Labour councillor, is now a regular sight in Rochdale. He is one of a number of suspected extremists released without charge in Britain after being stopped at the Syrian border.

Waheed Ahmed (pictured) and eight relatives, including a one-year-old, were picked up by Turkish police who feared they planned to join the Islamic State terror group. He is now walking the streets of Rochdale in the UK

Ahmad Mohammadi and Shahid Miah, both 24, have been allowed continue at university after allegedly travelling to the war-torn state to join IS. It is thought they wanted to be with Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana who appeared in an IS recruitment video.

Khan, 21, died in a UK drone strike on Syria in August – one of an estimated 45 Britons thought to have been killed in Syria and Iraq.

Around 700 Britons have thought to have travelled to join IS including teenage girls.

Around 450 have returned home. Police say the returnees pose a significant threat yet only a handful have been prosecuted. Instead they are being referred to the Government’s Prevent strategy which aims to deradicalise extremists and change their thinking.

Campaigners say the courts should instead hand out mandatory jail sentences.

Eddie Reid, 67, a campaigner for Help for Heroes, said: ‘Everyone is shocked that Ahmed and his relatives went off to join IS and on their return they are able to waltz around as if nothing had happened.

‘They wanted to join a terrorist organisation whose sole aim is to wipe out the West and yet he is able to return and resume his university studies.’

A Rochdale neighbour, 73, said: ‘It is a disgrace. His father is a councillor and represents the people of Rochdale yet he has a son who’d clearly like us all dead. It is outrageous that he should be allowed to walk the streets, grinning from ear to ear, as if it was some great adventure or a lark.’

His father Shakil, who has been pictured with former Labour leader Ed Miliband, said he did not know his son was in Turkey and thought he was working in Birmingham

Waheed (pictured) was detained in Turkey alongside his aunt, two cousins and one of his cousin's wives

Another resident said: ‘The law protects people like Ahmed but how can we ever be safe if people like him go unpunished? It’s ridiculous – at the very least he should be made to attend the Government’s deradicalisation programme.’

Anti-terror police believed Ahmed had been radicalised and they arrested and questioned him when he returned to the UK from Turkey. But the politics student was released without charge.

His father Shakil, who has been pictured with former Labour leader Ed Miliband, said he did not know his son was in Turkey and thought he was working in Birmingham.

Mr Ahmed, who sits on Rochdale Borough Council, said: ‘My son is a good Muslim and his loyalties belong to Britain. If I thought for a second that he was in danger of being radicalised, I would have reported him to the authorities.’

Asked by The Sun on Sunday about his alleged bid to enter an IS-controlled area of Syria, Ahmed replied: ‘I only went to Turkey. I’m just going to the mosque. I go five times a day to pray.’

Earlier this month, Ednane Mahmood, a 19-year-old student, was convicted of terrorism offences after he travelled to the Syrian border aiming to cross and fight for IS.

The youngest known IS recruits are twins Zahra and Salma Halane, 16, who fled their home in Chorlton, Manchester, in July 2014 to marry jihadi fighters in Syria.