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STOCKHOLM: Once again, Paris is in horrible situation. Dead bodies of the innocent civilians are lying on the streets. Friends and families make desperate calls, panic spreads. A nation is in trauma for the second time in a year 2015. A year that started with the Charlie Hebdo tragedy ended with a more dramatic attacks claiming more than 150 lives.
As the search for who is behind these attacks begins, ISIS and Al-Qaeda supporters are celebrating the attacks on social media under the hashtag “ParisIsBurning” One gunman at the theater are reported to have said out loud, “Allahu Akbar”and “This is for Syria” while murdering concert goers. But the responsibility of the attacks has not been officially claimed by any of the Islamic extremist group.
As events behind the scenes continued to unfold, with dozens dead in shootings and explosions, it was already obvious that the fallout from these attacks would be earth shattering for the French republic, both for its political developments and its social interconnection. Hollande spoke of “terrorists”, saying on national TV: “We know who these people are”. The attacks were certainly well prepared – all in one night and in different crowded public locations.
The Bataclan is a popular concert hall, packed on a Friday evenings. Many youngsters come for parties to Bataclan, relieving their work stress of the entire week. Another attack, near the Stade de France football stadium, where a match between France and Germany was taking place, with Hollande in attendance, is another strong symbol of the targeted and well-planned attacks. That kind of psychological impact, the fear that is being sown across the nation, on top of the human tragedy of the dead and wounded in Paris, will be long lasting and it will have big impact on social life of Muslims in France.Populist, far-right groups may well fuel more hatred.
Security experts kept warning after Charlie Hebdo that more threats would surface from violent jihadi groups connected ISIS and Al-Qaeda. But nothing of this level, in the heart of the French capital, had ever been stated as a possibility.
For the wider perspective what has happened in Paris during the year 2015 can only be a remembered as a violent and traumatic reminder of the fact we all still live in the post-9/11 era and Islamic religious extremist groups are a real threat not only for US but also for Europe.
What we know so far for this attack.
- More than 150 people are dead
- 118 killed at The Bataclantheater
- 4 attackers are dead
- France has closed its borders
- Paris is under mandatory curfew for the first time since 1944.
By our Correspondent Aftab Nadeem, Stockholm, Sweden.
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