Portugal: Two killed in attack on Shia Muslim center in Lisbon

A separate act or an attack on the Shia community? On Tuesday morning, a knife-wielding man killed two people and seriously injured another before being neutralized by Portuguese police in Lisbon during an attack on the world headquarters of the Ismailis, the Shia Muslim community led by the Aga Khan.

According to information provided by local authorities and representatives of the Ismaili community, this bloody attack will for the time being be treated as a “separate act” perpetrated by an Afghan refugee whose motives have yet to be ascertained.

The alleged perpetrator recently lost his wife “under difficult circumstances” in a refugee camp in Greece. He was not the subject of a “non-report” by the security forces and appears to have led a “reasonably quiet life” in Portugal with his children aged nine, seven and four, said Portuguese Interior Minister José Luís Carneiro.

The attacker is “alive and in custody”

According to local media reports, the attacker took English classes at an Ismaili center and the victims, two Portuguese women, were a 40-year-old teacher and a 20-year-old student.

The attack took place around 11 am. At this time, “a man armed with a sharp object” entered the premises of the Ismaili center in Lisbon. He “attacked three people (…), as a result of which two of them were mortally wounded and the third was wounded,” said Rahim Firozali, president of the National Council of the Ismaili Muslim Community.

After that, the police managed to neutralize the attacker, armed with a “big knife”, with a firearm. The suspect was later admitted to a hospital in the Portuguese capital. According to police, he is “alive and in custody.”