A 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy were arrested in the anti-terror raids
Image: ABC News
Sydney: Apart from several other counter-terrorism efforts under the Operation Appleby launched in August 2014, the arrests on Thursday were in connection with information about an attack plot discovered in evidence recovered after Australia’s biggest raid in September last year, when at least 800 armed forces arrested 16 suspects with terror links. The Federal Police affirmed that the two suspects were charged with ‘conspiracy to conduct an act in preparation for a terrorist act’. Operation Appleby was put into effect after intelligence agencies came across information that suggested that Islamist extremists were organizing random assassinations across the country, which a senior Australian Islamic State militant had allegedly named as ‘demonstration killings’.
At the same time, Australian forces continue to carry out bombings in Syria and Australian soldiers are actively training Iraqi forces. Even as the first anniversary of the 15th-16th December 2014 attacks in Sydney comes closer, the citizens grow more apprehensive and most are sure that there shall be another, massive attack in the time to come. The new Prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has assured the people of a ‘calm, clinical and effective’ counter-action against internal terrorism, bringing forth the importance of the arrests on Thursday. In the wider community, it has been accepted that Australia will keep exposing attacks before they can be executed. Said the Prime Minister in his first ever security address,” We cannot eliminate entirely the risk of terrorism any more than we can eliminate the risk of any serious crime,” said Malcolm Turnbull in his first national security address. “But we can mitigate it. We will continue to thwart and frustrate many attacks before they occur.”
Image Source: Daily Telegraph
Following a series of raids and arrests of people with terrorist connections throughout the past year, the police have not provided a certain plot that can be linked the duo taken in on Thursday but they have disclosed that there were plans to target government quarters, for which three to four suspects already behind bars will be answerable and their charges may be intensified. As a result of putting all of that information together, working through those documents, putting physical and electronic surveillance together, we were able to build a case of conspiracy for five people involved in the preparation of these documents,” the Deputy Commissioner of National Security Michael Phelan quoted.
Moreover, the duo were acquainted with the killers of police accountant, Curtis Cheng, 58, killed in terror-linked shootout in October 2015. He was shot dead by a 15-year-old, almost certainly radicalized youngster Farhad Jabar. The Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn commented, “”It is disturbing that we continue to deal with teenaged children in this environment. To be putting a 15-year-old before the courts on very serious charges that carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment demonstrates the difficulties law enforcement face.”
Including the two arrested on Thursday, Australian police officials have said that there are a total of 11 suspects under arrest with Operation Appleby. Very clearly, Australia is dividing its efforts between internal and external enemies, wherein the government has dedicated around 600 troops on this front.
Souce: BBC
