ISIS-inspired 'terrorist' killed after stabbing six in New Zealand, say authorities

ISIS-inspired Islamic extremist who stabbed six people in what is being called a ‘terrorist attack’ at a supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand, was shot dead by the police on Friday, 3 September 2021. “This afternoon, a violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders in the New Lynn countdown in Auckland,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the presser. The Sri Lankan national, she said, was on a terror watch list and had managed to carry out a "hateful" assault on innocent civilians. The terrorist on the watchlist of the government’s “multiple agencies” was shot dead within the first 60 seconds after he entered a shopping mall in suburban Auckland, seized a knife from a display, and went on a stabbing spree, Ardern said. 

The neutralized assaulter was inspired by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group also known Arabic acronym Daesh that primarily operates in western Iraq and eastern Syria but has infiltrated Afghanistan after the US military drawdown. According to a statement by the New Zealand police on the scene, the attacker had been a "person of interest" since 2016 for the law enforcement authorities but the assailant was pursued and killed. The police told Associated Press that they had been surveilling the assailant around the clock before he unleashed a frenzied knife assault on at least six, now critically wounded. At least three shoppers, who sustained injuries, were rushed to the Auckland hospitals. Two others, meanwhile, were in a stable condition, the police said. 

[Police and ambulance staff attend a scene outside an Auckland supermarket. New Zealand authorities said Friday they shot and killed a violent extremist after he entered a supermarket and stabbed and injured several shoppers. Photo: Alex Burton/New Zealand Herald via AP]

[Alex Burton/New Zealand Herald vía AP]

PM Ardern told reporters that she had been "personally briefed on the man in the past but there had been no legal reason for him to be detained.” Had he done something that would have allowed us to put him into prison, he would have been in prison,” Ardern stressed. “It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” New Zealand PM stressed. “He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”

The gruesome terrorist attack unfolded at around 2:40 pm at a Countdown supermarket in New Zealand’s Auckland. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said a police surveillance team and a specialist tactics group that had the intelligence, trailed the man to the supermarket discreetly. Although, Coster told reporters “they had no particular reason to think he was planning an attack on Friday” as the man appeared to go grocery shopping. “He entered the store, as he had done before. He obtained a knife from within the store,” Coster said. “Surveillance teams were as close as they possibly could be to monitor his activity.” 

“To everyone who was there and who witnessed such a horrific event, I can’t imagine how they will be feeling in the aftermath,” Ardern told the presser. “But thank you for coming to the aid of those who needed you when they needed you.”

[New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrives at a press conference following the Auckland supermarket terror attack at parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Credit: AP]

Man chanted 'Allahu Akbar', then stabbed random people

Eyewitnesses said that the man chanted “Allahu Akbar” — meaning God is great — and then started stabbing random shoppers in the vicinity as people ran and screamed in shock and fear. It was then that the two police officers from New Zealand’s special tactics group ran across and launched 10 fire shots in rapid succession at the man.  A woman was heard shouting, “There’s someone here with a knife … he’s got a knife, somebody got stabbed.” A guard at the New Lynn supermarket hurriedly asked the shoppers to run for cover and leave the market. 

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said, however, stated that there are questions if the officers should have reacted more quickly, and not until the terrorist charged at the officers with the knife. The police have cordoned off the area and a heavy presence of the officers in the scene at 7 pm was witnessed by the on-ground reporters. A probe was ordered into the incident.

(With agency inputs)

Image: AP