A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Identity of Finsbury Park mosque attacker revealed
Darren Osborne, 47-year-old father living in Cardiff, is now being held on suspicion of terror offences, says Scotland Yard
Police patrol the Finsbury Park area of north London after attack on Muslim worshippers on 19 June (AFP)
Monday 19 June 2017
The suspect behind the Finsbury Park mosque attack was named on
Wednesday as Darren Osborne, a 47-year-old married father of four,
living in Cardiff.
Osborne ploughed a van through a crowd outside the north London mosque
at about 12:20am on Monday, injuring 10 people and leaving an elderly
man who suffered a heart attack dead.
Witnesses said the driver of the vehicle had shouted "I want to kill all
Muslims" and "this is for London Bridge", before he was restrained.
Mohammed
Mahmoud (C), an Imam at Finsbury Park Mosque, gives a statement to the
media at a police cordon in the Finsbury Park area of north London on 19
June (AFP)
Osborne was initially arrested by police on suspicion of attempted
murder, but is now being held on suspicion of terror offences, Scotland
Yard said.
Police were on Monday searching an address in a cul-de-sac close to Cardiff golf club in the northeast of the city suburbs.
According to UK security minister Ben Wallace, Osborne was not known to the government, reported the Guardian.
“What I can say on this case is this individual, so far as we know at
the moment, was not known to us, but we are aware of a rise in the far
right,” said Wallace.
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Met police commissioner Cressida Dick said the suspect targeted Muslim worshippers.
“This was quite clearly an attack on Muslims who looked like they were
probably Muslims and they were coming from a prayer meeting,” said the
Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick.
“We treat this as a terrorist attack and we in the Met are as shocked as
anybody in this local community or across the country at what has
happened.”
The
suspect's mother expressed shock at knowing that her son was behind the
attack. She described Osborne as a "complex" person, in an interview
with ITV News.
"I’m
not going to defend him, but he’s my son and it’s a terrible, terrible
shock," she said. "It’s not just robbing a bank, it’s an atrocity. And
at this moment in time, I can’t cope with it, I can’t. I don’t want to
say anything more."
The
suspect has been described by neighbours as “aggressive”. The weekend
before the tragedy, he called the 12-year-old son of his Muslim
neighbours “in-bred”, the Guardian reported.
The Met police said in a statement: “At this stage in the investigation,
it is believed that the suspect acted alone but we are of course
investigating all the circumstances leading up to the attack.”
Local youths told by Middle East Eye they were forced to restrain the
alleged attacker themselves for between 10 and 20 minutes. Ahmed Hajji, a
23-year-old local to Finsbury Park, said: "The police arrived late,
which forced us to do a citizen's arrest of the man so he would not get
away.
"Local youths, who are always demonised in this area, were the ones that saved the day."
A
policewoman sorts through floral tributes left near the police cordon,
close to the scene of a van attack in Finsbury Park, north London on 19
June (AFP)
Abdi, another local who wanted to be identified only by his first name,
said the attacker shouted "this is for London Bridge" - a reference to
an attack by three men earlier this month. The man added "Just kill me,
just kill me" as he was taken away by police, Abdi said.
Osborne was protected by an imam at the mosque, Mohammed Mahmoud.
“There was a mob attempt to hurt him, so we pushed people away from him
until he was safely taken by police,” Mahmoud said. He waved to
onlookers from the back of the police van as he was led away.