A knife-wielding man killed two women and seriously injured a third person before being neutralized by Portuguese police in Lisbon during an attack on the world headquarters of the Ismailis, a Shia Muslim community led by the Aga Khan.
According to the elements provided by the authorities and representatives of the Ismaili community, this murderous attack was an “isolated act” committed by an Afghan refugee whose motivations remain to be clarified.
The attack took place around 11 a.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT) when “a man armed with a sharp object” entered the premises of the Ismaili center in Lisbon and “attacked three people (…) fatally affecting two of them and injuring a third,” said the chairman of the National Council of the Ismaili Muslim Community, Rahim Firozali.
“The Ismaili Muslim community, known for its principles of humanity, peace and mutual aid, is in mourning and shocked by these tragic events,” Faizal Ali, one of the leaders of the community, reacted in a brief statement. to reporters in the early evening.
“We are working with the authorities” to shed light on these events, he added.
Portuguese police initially reported “several injuries”, but Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro later clarified that the assailant had killed two people and that a man had been “seriously injured”. It is a professor, who was able to give the alert afterwards, according to Faizal Ali.
“Everything suggests that this is an isolated act,” Carneiro told the media, adding that the alleged perpetrator was a refugee who had lost his wife “in difficult circumstances” in a exile camp in Greece. He did not provide details of those circumstances.
“He was not the subject of any report” from the security forces and seemed to lead “a fairly quiet life” in Portugal with his three children aged 4 to 9, added the minister.
The police neutralized the attacker, who was armed with a “large knife”, using a firearm. The suspect was later admitted to a hospital in the Portuguese capital. He is “alive and in custody”, police said.
Targeted by the attack, the community of Shia Ismaili Muslims established its world headquarters in Lisbon and its spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, obtained Portuguese nationality in 2019.
The Ismailis, a minority current of Shiite Islam, form a community of 12 to 15 million people spread over thirty countries. They have about 8,000 members in Portugal.
In recent years, attacks have multiplied, particularly in Pakistan, against Ismailis, accused by Sunni extremists of embodying a “deviant” current in relation to Muslim orthodoxy.
“I express my solidarity and my condolences towards the victims and the Ismaili community”, reacted Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa to the press, also evoking the hypothesis of an “isolated act” rather than that of a terrorist attack.
According to the president of the Afghan Community Association in Portugal, Omed Taeri, the alleged assailant is a refugee who “suffers from psychological problems” after “losing his wife in Greece”.
He would have arrived in Portugal a little over a year ago and was worried about the fate of his three children, he said in an interview with the CNN Portugal news channel.
According to local media, the aggressor was taking courses at the Ismaili center and the victims, two women of Portuguese nationality, employees of the Ismaili center in Lisbon, would be in their forties and twenties.
“Everything indicates that this is an attack for personal motivations (…) nevertheless, nothing justifies a criminal act like this,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters. after going to the Ismaili Centre.
The Aga Khan had decided to set up the headquarters of his community in Portugal after an agreement signed in June 2015 with the Portuguese State providing for tax advantages and diplomatic privileges, in particular in exchange for investments in the fields of scientific research. and development.
28/03/2023 23:12:05 – Lisbon (AFP) – © 2023 AFP