New Zealand ISIS knifeman STILL can’t be unmasked:

From the Daily Mail and the New Zealand Herald

A knifeman with links to ISIS who went on a stabbing rampage injuring at least six people while screaming ‘Allah Allah’ will remain unnamed after a New Zealand judge imposed a gagging order protecting the jihadist and his family’s privacy. The attacker, identified only as ‘S’, was a 32-year-old Sri Lankan man who moved to the country in 2011, but was placed under 24/7 police surveillance having recently been released from prison on terror-related charges. 

The Islamist’s identity will remain shielded under New Zealand’s stringent privacy laws, after a High Court judge ruled the knifeman’s family must have at least 24 hours to give his family an ‘opportunity to seek a suppression order’. 

The number of victims has been updated to seven

Police have released the ages of the victims injured in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Auckland. Four of the seven are women, aged 29, 43, 60, and 66. The other three men are 53, 57, and 77.

A local man witnessed the very first moments of the attack which left him shaken. 

“… I was just buying stuff and walking toward the milk aisle, and then suddenly I heard a person shouting loudly ‘Allahu Akbar’ and just running,” the 34-year-old witness said. “So there was this lady in front of me and he jumped on her so she fell, so that person [the attacker] also sort of lost his balance. He also fell. Then he got up. But I was behind so I couldn’t see his face but this person was wearing like a khaki jacket and he had a knife, a pretty big knife — like I would say the size of his arm. It was very scary. It was like a mini sword, not like a full sword. It was like a sword literally.” He described the “slightly hefty” attacker as about 172cm tall.

Three critical patients, and another in a serious condition, were taken to Auckland City Hospital. One person in a moderate condition is at Waitakere Hospital, and another in a moderate condition is at Middlemore Hospital. The victim taken to Middlemore Hospital with moderate injuries remains in a stable condition, a Counties Manukau DHB spokesman told the Herald this morning. The Herald asked Auckland DHB for an update on the four patients taken to its hospital – three critical and one serious – and a spokeswoman said to liaise with police.

In terms of the attacker, “this was someone who was known to our national security agencies,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said from Parliament last night. “There are very few who fall into this category and I can give you this assurance.”

She said the attacker was ISIS-inspired. 

Ardern also confirmed, “yes, I was personally aware of him . . . Yes [my heart sank] because I knew we had been doing everything we could, everything that we could. So yes, I was absolutely gutted.” Because innocent New Zealand citizens had been attacked and could have been killed? Or because the Muslims of Christchurch Mosque and elsewhere might face some constructive criticism? 

On Saturday, the day after the attack, she called for kindness and unity in the face of the attacks. “We have it within our powers to ensure that the actions of an individual do not create a knock on of hate, judgment and vitriol. I know, New Zealand you will be kind,” Ardern said. “Please wrap your arms around all of our victims – those of yesterday, and those of the past.”

Imam Gamal Fouda, leader of Al Noor mosque, which was the site of the 15 March white supremacist attack that killed 51 worshippers. “This terrorist is not from us and we are one against terror,” he said in a statement. “All terrorists are the same regardless of their ideology whether it is white nationalism or ISIS. They stand for hate and we all stand for peace and love.”

Who knew what he believed and was planning? Who agrees with him about ‘Kiwi scum’? Was he radicalised in New Zealand?

The attacker came to New Zealand in 2011 on a student visa from Sri Lanka. He was 22 then, and New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said any extremist views he might have held at that time were not known to authorities. (He) came to police attention in 2016 after expressing sympathy for terrorists and sharing violent videos online. Police spoke to him in April and May that year but the behaviour continued.

In May 2017, he was arrested at Auckland International Airport, where police believed he was heading for Syria. They searched his apartment and found restricted publications and a hunting knife. He was charged with possessing them, and pleaded guilty to knowingly distributing restricted publications, fraud, and failing to assist police in the execution of their search powers. He was released on bail. 

While on bail in August 2018, he was caught buying a knife, resulting in another arrest and police again finding objectionable or “extremist material” after searching his home. He was charged and kept in custody.  In July 2020, prosecutors tried to prosecute the man under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, but a High Court judge ruled that preparing a terrorist attack was not in itself an offence under the country’s legislation. He remained in custody.

During this time he assaulted prison officers and was charged in relation to this. 

 In July 2021, he was sentenced to 12 months’ supervision with conditions, including living at a certain place, restrictions on his internet use, allowing police to check his phone, and attendance at rehabilitation sessions. Mr Coster said on Saturday that the attacker had shown himself to be “generally uncooperative” with regards to rehabilitation efforts.  Prosecutors had sought electronic monitoring but the court refused this. From the day of his release, he was closely monitored by police, but Mr Coster said he was very paranoid, even challenging members of the public who he accused of following him.

I bet Mrs Hijabette’s heart sank…