An 18-year-old Bangladeshi was taken into custody by Austrian police on the belief that he may be a possible accomplice to the Vienna terror attack that saw four people killed last week.
Bangladeshi Istiaque A. is one of the ten people arrested aged between 16 and 24 in the aftermath of the terror attack last Monday that saw radical Islamic terrorist Kujtim F. kill four people in a shooting spree in central Vienna.
The arrested teen is said to have been previously arrested and charged in October with being involved with the Islamic State terrorist group since March of 2018 and is reported to have supported Vienna killer Kujtim F., who wanted to travel to Syria to fight for the group, Kronen Zeitung reports.
According to investigators, the Bangladeshi is said to have spread various Islamic state propaganda material online, including songs calling for violent jihad against “infidels.”
His potential involvement in the Vienna terrorist attack is still under investigation according to the newspaper.
The arrest of the teen, along with nine others, comes as part of a broader crackdown on radical Islamists by the Austrian government headed by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Last week, two mosques in Vienna linked to radical Islamist ideologies were raided and dissolved by the government, one of which was said to have been directly connected to Kujtim F. and may have played a part in his radicalisation.
On Monday, investigators conducted large-scale raids on more than 60 addresses linked to radical Islamists with Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer stating the goal of the raids was “cutting off the roots of political Islam.”
In the region of Styria, the local prosecutor’s office stated it was “carrying out investigations against more than 70 suspects and against several associations which are suspected of belonging to and supporting the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas organisations.”
Graz, the largest city in Styria, has been known as a hotbed for radical Islam in recent years and was labelled a “stronghold” for Islamists in 2017 by experts who claimed that 11 of the 20 mosques in the city had Islamist ties.
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