ROME
\nItaly\u2019s anti-terrorism police and Europol on Tuesday arrested Pakistanis suspected of links to the man who attacked France\u2019s Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2020.
\nArab News reported that the sting led to \u201carrests in Italy and abroad of Pakistani citizens with direct ties\u201d to Zaheer Hassan Mahmood, a Pakistani man who attacked two people with a meat cleaver, weeks after the magazine republished controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him), Italian police said. It did not say how many were arrested.
\nEuropol\u2019s European Counter Terrorism Centre coordinated the operation along with anti-terrorism police in France and Spain, according to police in Genoa in north-west Italy, where a judge signed 14 arrest warrants concerning offences related to \u201cinternational terrorism\u201d.
\nGenoa\u2019s local Il Secolo XIX daily said at least eight of the arrest warrants had been carried out in Italy against people belonging to \u201ca network of Islamic extremists… who were plotting attacks\u201d. The probe began in Genoa because one of the suspects lives in the area, but months of \u201cwiretaps, stake-outs, tailing suspects and comparing numerous data with police in other countries\u201d revealed other members of the gang in other parts of Italy, France and Spain, it said.
\nThe investigation continues into others with alleged ties to those targeted by Tuesday\u2019s sting, it added.
\nMahmood injured two people during the 2020 attack, which came five years after 12 members of staff at the satirical weekly were gunned down for publishing the cartoons, which are considered blasphemous by many Muslims.TLTP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME Italy\u2019s anti-terrorism police and Europol on Tuesday arrested Pakistanis suspected of links to the man who attacked France\u2019s Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2020. Arab News reported that the sting led to \u201carrests in Italy and abroad of Pakistani citizens with direct ties\u201d to Zaheer Hassan Mahmood, a Pakistani man who attacked two people with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-264923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n