The knife attack by a mentally-challenged (?) Norwegian-Somali origin knifeman who went on a rampage in the Russell Square in London on Thursday has once again brought terror scare to the city. Though there were no initial signs of radicalisation on the 19-year-old suspect, yet it may be a new design of the Islamic State (IS) for hounding its enemies.
It is believed that the call given by the IS for carrying out wolf attacks on infidels may have inspired this killer who could finally kill one American woman and injured at least five. This may also set a new trend of employing ‘mentally ill’ Islamists to take on the targets mostly in Western nations which are already on the top list of IS. It is suspected that mental health was a factor; but jihadist ideology could be the prime mover.
As Britain stands at severe levels of threat which refers that a strike is “highly likely”. It must, therefore, alert its police and intelligence agencies for spotting suspected individuals, mainly in crowded places. Britain is an ally of the US on the global war on terrorism since the beginning and it has been on the Islamists radar for decades. This kind of attacks will force the ordinary Britons to revisit the issues of migration and many more will support the conservative nationalists across Europe who are up in arms against the current flow of refugees from war ravaged countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen etc to the European continent.
Why such blunt killings have increasingly become a part of IS agenda ? Is it because of constant pressure on the IS and their dwindling impact on the fans or followers ? Is it happening as they have become too desperate to kill the infidels ? It may be all, but the main reason behind the lone attacks could be their frustration and fast losing of their territories in both Syria and Iraq.
Despite facing constant attacks, the IS is still holding on to the ground and it is surviving in their strongholds. Hence, many more like the London-type killing spree might be seen across the globe. Especially cities like London, Paris, New York, New Delhi, Mumbai, Sydney etc must be put on high alert and their respective city administrations should share intelligence details for preventing such attacks. Globally, a coalition of nations must be formed against the IS, as it is not merely a collection of psychopaths, they need to be handled with extreme care.
Their world-wide networks, financial strength, occupation of physical territories, establishment of supra-state like institutional mechanisms, superior fire power, use of the cyber space and finally the huge fan following, may have to be dealt with seriously and this badly requires joint effort of global institutions, while involving the major sates affected by IS terror strikes directly.
If it is established that the Norwegian killer is linked to IS (as it has already been celebrated by the vile IS supporters of IS the Russell Square bloodbath in the heart of the Christendom), then the security arrangements and intelligence surveillance across the big cities of the world must be reviewed at the earliest. The pertinent question that comes to anyone’s mind is that are we safe in our global cities like London ? Can we ensure protection of our civilians against such untoward assailants ? Most probably not and we all must rise against this global menace together this time.
Source : Daily Pioneer
