2008 Barcelona terror plot

Last updated

2008 Barcelona terror plot
Location Barcelona, Spain
Date18–19 January 2008
Target Barcelona Metro, Barcelona
Attack type
Suicide bombings
Weaponsexplosives
Deaths0
Injured0
Perpetrators Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Motive jihadism

The terrorist organization Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan planned a terror attack in the city of Barcelona, which was stopped a few days before they intended to perform it. They intended to conduct a suicide bombing on the Barcelona Metro. [1] [2] [3] The metro plot was intended to become the first of a series attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom as those countries contributed to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, with the timing determined by al Qaeda making political demands through Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. [3]

Arrests and indictment

Some 14 people – twelve Pakistanis and two Indians – were arrested between 18 and 19 January 2008 in the Raval multicultural neighborhood in Barcelona. [1]

The police searched four private homes, an industrial site turned into an Islamic prayer room and a bakery. One of the arrested cooperated with the intelligence services and became a protected witness. The police operation was authorized by Audiencia Nacional court after receiving information from the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). [3]

A number of books, pamphlets and other media containing radical Islamist ideas such as jihad and martyrdom were found by the Guardia Civil. [3]

Of the 14 detained, all were subjected to detention without contact to the outside world and transferred to Madrid. Two were released without charges on 22 January and two were released on 23 January and the remaining ten, of which nine Pakistanis and one Indian, were unconditionally provisionally imprisoned. On 14 March 2009, another member of the group who had left Barcelona before the police operation was arrested in Dutch city of Breda. [3]

Eight of the suspects, Maroof Ahmed Mirza, Mohammad Ayub Elahi Bibi, Mohamed Tarik, Qadeer Malik, Hafeez Ahmed, Roshan Jamal Khan, Shaib Iqbal and Imram Cheemawere were accused of being members of a terrorist organization and possessing explosives. The last three, Mohammed Shoaib, Mehmooh Khalid and Aqueel Ur Rahmnan Abassi, were only accused of belonging to a terrorist organization. The charges were upheld by the Audiencia Nacional in a 9 October 2009 trial. The judge concluded the constituted an organized group adhering to extremist Islamist ideology. [3]

Six of the sentenced were legal immigrants to Spain and most of those had lived in Spain since 2001. Five others arrived to Spain in the months prior to the plot. [3]

Months later, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman, claimed the attack in a video statement, which was posted on the Internet.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

Abdul Hakim Ali Hashim Murad is a Pakistani Islamist terrorist, who was a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot—the forerunner to the September 11 attacks. In 1996, he was convicted in the United States of trying to blow up a dozen airliners and was sentenced to life in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 Madrid train bombings</span> Terrorist attack on Madrids suburban trains

The 2004 Madrid train bombings were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 193 people and injured around 2,050. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since 1988. The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lashkar-e-Taiba</span> Pakistan-based Islamist and revolutionary organization

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistan-based militant Islamist Salafi jihadist organisation. Described as one of Pakistan's "most powerful jihadi groups", it is most infamous outside Pakistan. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 1985-6 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated a terrorist group by numerous countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaish-e-Mohammed</span> Islamic Jihadist organisation

Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistan-based Deobandi Jihadist terrorist group active in Kashmir. The group's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter-Services Intelligence</span> Military intelligence service of Pakistan

The Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami</span> Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist Jihadist group

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is a Pakistani Islamist extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist organisation affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Numerous civilians, including men, women, children, government officials, activists, secular intellectuals and clerics have been victims of assassination, terrorism, or violence against non-combatants, over the course of modern Iranian history. Among the most notable acts of terrorism in Iran in the 20th century have been the 1978 Cinema Rex fire and the 1990s chain murders of Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic Jihad Union</span> Militant Islamist organization in northwest Pakistan

The Islamic Jihad Union is a militant Islamist organization founded in 2002 as a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Headquartered in North Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, the group has been affiliated with both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused by several countries of training, financing, and providing weapons and safe havens for non-state militant actors, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and other Palestinian groups such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These groups are designated terrorist groups by a number of countries and international bodies; however, Iran considers such groups to be "national liberation movements" with a right to self-defense against Israeli military occupation. These proxies are used by Iran across the Middle East and Europe to foment instability, expand the scope of the Islamic Revolution, and carry out terrorist attacks against Western targets in the region. Its special operations unit, the Quds Force, is known to provide arms, training, and financial support to militias and political movements across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.

Events from the year 2008 in Pakistan.

Safdar Nagori was the General-Secretary of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an Islamist organization designated as a terrorist organization by the Government of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistani Taliban</span> Islamist militant organization operating along the Durand Line

The Pakistani Taliban, formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war, but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Qaeda activities in Europe</span>

The international activities of Al-Qaeda includes involvements in Europe, where members of the group have been involved in militant and terrorist activities in several countries. Al-Qaeda has been responsible for or involved in attacks in Western Europe and Russia, including the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 2010 Moscow Metro bombings, 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing, and the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks.

Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi Shaheed,, was a Sunni Islamic cleric from Pakistan who was well known for his moderate and anti-terrorist views. He was killed in a suicide bombing in Jamia Naeemia Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan on 12 June 2009, after publicly denouncing the Tehrik-i-Taliban's terrorist actions and ideologies as unislamic.

Abdul Rauf is a Pakistani Deobandi fundamentalist Islamist militant commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi Islamist militant organization which has carried out Islamist militant activities in India & Afghanistan under the support of Pakistan's main intelligence agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August 2016 Quetta attacks</span> 2016 terrorist attack in Quetta, Pakistan

On 8 August 2016, terrorists attacked the Government Hospital of Quetta in Pakistan with a suicide bombing and shooting. They killed more than 70 people, mainly lawyers, and injured more than 130 others. The fatalities were mainly advocates (lawyers) who had assembled at the hospital where the body of Advocate Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, was brought after he was shot dead by an unknown gunman. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by various Islamist groups like Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and the Islamic State. Between 70 and 94 people were killed and over 120 injured. 54 of those killed were lawyers.

Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad is a codename of a combined military operation by the Pakistani military in support of local law enforcement agencies to disarm and eliminate the terrorist sleeper cells across all states of Pakistan, started on 22 February 2017. The operation is aimed to eliminate the threat of terrorism, and consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive. It is further aimed at ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders. The operation is ongoing active participation from Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Police and other Warfare and Civil Armed Forces managed under the Government of Pakistan. More than 375,000 operations have been carried out against terrorists so far. This Operation has been mostly acknowledged after Operation Zarb e Azb.

On 13–14 December 2017, Russian security authorities arrested seven members of an ISIL terrorist cell during a police operation in St. Petersburg. The suspects were alleged to have plotted suicide bombings in St. Petersburg on the weekend of 16–17 December 2017, with the Kazan Cathedral among the targets. Both the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) were involved in the operation.

References

  1. 1 2 "Raids foiled Barcelona bomb plot, says judge". The Guardian . 24 January 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  2. "Los islamistas detenidos en Barcelona tenían al menos cuatro temporizadores". elmundo.es. Elmundo. 21 January 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "A Case Study of the January 2008 Suicide Bomb Plot in Barcelona". Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.