Spanish authorities have arrested and placed under investigation five young men, all linked to a radical party in Pakistan, who are believed to have glorified terrorist attacks, including the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty.
All five of the young men are said to be linked to the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party, a far-right extremist party in Pakistan and are believed to have praised various terrorists in Europe over social media platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook.
The arrests of the men were made earlier this year in February, including 31-year-old Pakistani national Ullah Shoaib, who has been placed in pretrial detention as the court believed that he may be a flight risk, El Confidencial reports.
Prosecutors and investigators say that along with the material the men are alleged to have posted on social media, their seized electronic devices also contained radical material, including a photograph of French President Emanuel Macron with the caption “headshot” and images of weapons, including rifles and machetes.
The Criminal Chamber of the National Court dismissed the Pakistani national’s arguments for release stating, “We must take into account the high number of people who have reached their publications if we take into account that they manage or have managed at least five profiles on social networks.”
A Spanish magistrate compared the group of men to terrorist organisations such the al-Qaeda and the Islamic State who also distribute their propaganda on social media networks and encrypted messaging apps online.
The men are specifically said to have praised the actions of Chechen 18-year-old refugee Abdullakh Anzorov, who beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty in the suburbs of Paris in October of 2020 after the teacher had shown cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed to his class.
Radical Islamic extremism remains a major security threat in Spain and earlier this month officials from the Spanish interior ministry warned of possible threats to prison staff from radicals after messages we republished online calling on Jihadi prisoners to murder prison guards and other staff.