By BARRY HATTON and JOSEPH WILSON (Associated Press)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A person wielding a big knife killed two ladies and injured a number of different folks at an Ismaili Muslim middle in Lisbon, and Portuguese police mentioned they have been investigating Tuesday’s stabbing assault as a doable terror act.
The ladies have been Portuguese employees members on the middle, Ismaili neighborhood chief Narzim Ahmad advised Portuguese TV channel SIC. Local Afghan neighborhood representatives and Portuguese authorities described the person as a refugee from Afghanistan who was receiving assist from the Ismaili Community.
Officers dispatched to the middle late Tuesday morning encountered a person armed with a knife, in line with a police assertion. The officers ordered him to give up and he was shot when he superior towards them, the assertion mentioned.
A suspect was in police custody at a Lisbon hospital. Investigators have been trying into terrorism as a doable motive. Several different folks have been wounded, in line with the assertion, which supplied no additional particulars.
Millions of Afghans have fled violence and poverty of their nation, typically risking their lives to get to Europe.
The suspect is a “young man” who arrived in Portugal via a European Union program that transfers asylum-seekers to member international locations to assist relieve stress on Mediterranean nations equivalent to Greece and Italy, Portuguese Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro mentioned.
While police advised The Associated Press they have been investigating the assault as a doable extremist act, Carneiro urged warning, saying any “hasty analysis” ought to be prevented.
The minister mentioned the person’s spouse died in a refugee camp in Greece, leaving him to care alone for 3 youngsters, ages 9, 7 and 4. Authorities had no info indicating he had been violent previously, Carnieiro mentioned.
“From what we know, he was a calm person who had received help from the Ismaili community in terms of knowledge of languages, knowledge, food care, care for younger children,” he mentioned.
Omer Taeri, president of the Association of the Afghan Community in Portugal, advised CNN Portugal the suspect arrived within the nation final yr. He mentioned the alleged attacker suffered from “psychological trauma” after the dying of his spouse and was nervous about his youngsters.
Taeri requested for folks to not “judge an entire community by one incident.”
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa mentioned police shot the suspect and advised reporters the assault was “a criminal act.”
“Everything points to this being an isolated incident,” Costa mentioned, with out elaborating.
Armed police from a particular operations unit might fashioned a fringe outdoors the constructing following the incident.
The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, commonly known as the Ismailis, belong to the Shia department of Islam. The Ismaili Muslims are a culturally numerous neighborhood residing in additional than 25 international locations all over the world.
Portugal hasn’t recorded any vital terror assaults in latest a long time, and spiritual violence is just about exceptional.
“The Ismaili community is shocked and saddened by this incident and is providing support to the families of the victims,” the Ismaili Community mentioned in a press release. Neither police nor the neighborhood recognized the ladies who died.
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Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”