London, June 23: Moroccan security services broke up Monday a suspected Palestinian-led Islamic extremist network that was planning to carry out attacks in the North African country, the interior ministry said.
The network of 11 members led by a Palestinian “planned to commit terrorist acts within the national territory,” the ministry said in a statement without giving details of the panned attacks.
The security officers gave further details at a press briefing, saying that the Palestinian came to Morocco in 2010 and used the internet to contact Moroccans who shared his jihadist views in order to orchestrate attacks in the country.
“The cell of Takfirists planned to commit terrorist attacks against Jewish sites and nightclubs in Morocco,” added security officers.
The Takfirist ideology is upheld by a violent Islamist movement forming a tiny minority in Morocco, who argue that society and its rulers have strayed from the true path. Takfirism first appeared in Egypt in the 1970s.
Security services dismantled in April an Al-Qaeda linked network which they said was preparing to commit crimes and acts of sabotage against the security services and interests of Morocco.
Observers believe that the interior ministry’s statement about the arrest of terrorist networks are all similar and lack details, raising doubts among some Moroccans about whether the detainees are actually members of terrorist cells.
But the Minister of Communication’s spokesman Khalid Naciri, brushed off the doubts.
“Do we have to arrest terrorists with live broadcasts?” Asked Naciri. “These remarks are ridiculous. Investigations are the responsibility of the public prosecution,” he added.
The last big terrorist attack was the Casablanca bombings of May 16, 2003 which claimed 45 lives, including those of 12 bombers, and wounded many people in the northern port city.
More than 2,000 Islamists have been arrested and sentenced in Morocco since the Casablanca deadly bombings. Many of them are in jail after trials described by defence lawyers, judicial reform campaigners and human rights activists as unfair and based on flimsy evidence.
However, the government insists only genuine criminals are imprisoned on solid information and after fair trials.
—Agencies