French soldiers and police patrol Charles de Gaulle airport on January 17, 2015 in Roissy-en-France, north of Paris
Brussels: Europe was on high alert yesterday as the suspected mastermind of a jihadist cell in Belgium remained at large and jittery authorities blocked anti-Islamist rallies in Germany and France.
With tensions heightened, Cherif Kouachi, the second gunman in the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack was buried discreetly in an unmarked grave near Paris late on Saturday in the hope that it would not become a pilgrimage site for radical Islamists.
Meanwhile, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, considered the brains behind the cell plotting to kill Belgian police, was still on the run days after the group was dismantled by intelligence services.
In Germany, police banned a rally by the anti-Islamic Pegida movement and other open-air gatherings planned for today in the eastern city of Dresden, saying there was a “concrete threat” of an attack against its leadership. Local media reporting that Pegida’s most prominent leader Lutz Bachmann was the target. Also, a French court prevented a rally by anti-Islamist groups in Paris on the grounds that they were promoting Islamophobia.
In the wake of the French attacks and the Belgian anti-terror raids, EU foreign ministers were to meet in Brussels today to discuss ways to boost cooperation to combat the threat posed by radicalised Europeans returning home after fighting in Iraq and Syria. Anger erupted in a string of majority Muslim countries. The worst unrest was in Niger, where at least 10 people were killed and at least eight churches were torched over two days of rioting.
Fresh protests broke out yesterday in Pakistan where thousands gathered in almost all major cities, including Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, chanting angry slogans and burning French flags. AFP
