In 2016, it was Brussels 22/3 and one year later it is Westminster 22/3. A terror attack in the heart of London left five dead and nearly 40 injured
The London terror attack is a developing story and is
reminiscent of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack though on a relatively lesser
scale. The incident has taken place on the first anniversary of the Brussels attacks
carried out by by Islamist militants that killed 32 people.
An assailant believed to be an Islamist (owing allegiance to ISIS) stabbed a policeman
and was shot by police just outside Britain's parliament building in London on
22nd March around 2.40 pm in what police described as a "terrorist incident." It was
later announced that the policeman Keith Palmer, 48 succumbed to his injuries. It was reported earlier that two people died
in the incident, according to Sky News, but the total number of casualties was
unclear. Later it was reported that five persons including the police officer
and the assailant were among those dead and around 40 were injured.
Amid confusing scenes, it appeared the incident may have unfolded in several
locations, including on the nearby Westminster Bridge where eyewitnesses said a
car had crashed into pedestrians. A 4x4
vehicle ploughed into the railings near Westminster Hall after mowing down
pedestrians on the bridge.
Source: NYT Terrain and aerial imagery by Google
The yellow
arrow indicates the route taken by the terrorist on Westminster bridge; the two yellow circles are
the places where the car crashed and where the assailant was shot and the red
spots show where the pedestrians were wounded.
Reuters’ reporters inside the parliament building heard loud
bangs and shortly afterwards saw two people lying on the ground in a courtyard
just outside, within the perimeter of the parliamentary estate.
A Reuters’ photographer said he saw at least a dozen people injured on
Westminster Bridge, next to parliament.
His photographs showed people lying on the ground, some of them bleeding
heavily and one apparently under a bus.
Witness reports suggested the assailant and the stabbed
policeman were the people seen lying on the ground just outside the
parliamentary building by Reuters reporters.
The House of Commons, which was in session at the time, was immediately
suspended and lawmakers were asked to stay inside.
Prime Minister Theresa May was safe after the incident, a spokesman for her
office said. He declined to say where May was when the attack took place.
Journalist Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail newspaper told LBC radio that he had
witnessed the stabbing of the policeman and the shooting of the assailant from
his office in the parliament building.
"He (the assailant) ran in through the open gates ... He set about one of
the policemen with what looked like a stick," Letts said. Letts, said he saw a man in black attack a police officer
outside Parliament before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm
into the House of Commons, the Press Association reports.
"The policeman (Keith Palmer) fell over on the ground and it was quite
horrible to watch and then having done that, he disengaged and ran towards the
House of Commons entrance used by MPs (members of parliament) and got about 20
yards or so when two plain-clothed guys with guns shot him." He added:
“As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plain clothed guys with
guns shouted at him, what appeared like a warning, he ignored it and they shot
him two or three times and he fell.”
Reuters’ reporters inside parliament saw a large number of armed police, some
carrying shields, pouring into the building.
In Edinburgh, the Scottish parliament suspended a planned debate and vote on
independence as news of events in London came in.
Britain is on its second-highest alert level of "severe" meaning an
attack by militants is considered highly likely.
The identity of the suspected Islamist militant has not been released by the London Police for reasons best known. It is rather stupid on part of the authorities to suppress the identity merely because of suspected ISIS links. Suppression of essential information leads to speculative
reporting. The attacker was briefly identified by Channel 4 News as a prominent
British-born Islamist extremist but the broadcaster later reversed its report
after other journalists disputed it on Twitter. BBC Pakistan correspondent
Secunder Kernani said a “reliable source” told him that the man Channel 4 named
was in jail.
The Islamist link was apparent from the choice of weapons, namely using a vehicle to plough into a crowd as in Nice and Berlin and a knife for stabbing which has been used in the past by Islamist terrorists in Israel and elsewhere. The ISIS link is further reinforced by the choice of the target, namely, the heart of democracy, the British Parliament and a street with a lot of pedestrians. ISIS, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba choose high value targets and public places frequented by a lot of people at any given point of time.
The police again had no business to refer to the attack as a "Lone Wolf Attack" or that only a lone attacker was involved in the absence of detailed investigations.
In May 2013, two British Islamists stabbed to death soldier Lee Rigby on a
street in southeast London.
In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 commuters and themselves in
suicide bombings on the British capital's transport system in what was London's
worst peacetime attack.
Update: The identity of the assailant was released by the authorities. The name of the assailant is Khalid Masood, 52 from West Midlands who had a criminal record but was not considered as a terror threat. According to sources, the terrorist was killed by the protection officers of Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
Update 25th March: According to security
officials, the terrorist Khalid Masood was not a “lone wolf” and others had
played a key part in indoctrinating him and helping him to carry out the deadly
attacks in Westminster on 22nd March.
The disclosure that the
British-born Muslim convert was likely to have been part of a wider conspiracy
came as armed police detained 11 people in raids across the country with two of
the arrests, including that of a woman, Rohey Hydara, a Gambian woman with whom
he was living, described as “significant” in the investigation.
