Terrorists took advantage of coronavirus pandemic in Europe

Hague: A Europol report claims that the terrorist organisations took advantage of the Coronavirus pandemic, which was rampaging in Europe, to create an atmosphere of fear and disbelief through a spiteful campaign. The Europol report also says that terrorist organisations and their affiliates tried to use the discontent in the people due to lockdowns imposed and other measures taken because of the Coronavirus pandemic. As a result, more than ten terrorist attacks were carried out in Europe last year, killing 21 people.

Europol, known as the police department of Europe, published a report named Terrorism Situation and Trend Report. The report points to the efforts made by the terrorist organisations and extremists to increase their influence against the background of the Coronavirus pandemic. Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol, warned that the extremists also took advantage of the increasing use of digital technology. As a result, a massive campaign to spread violent ideologies was carried out during the pandemic times.

The Terrorism Situation and Trend Report claims that the extremists and terrorists used the discontent in the community to promote their ideologies and used fake information for this purpose. The report also mentions the political transformations happening in Europe over the last few years, and points out that society is getting polarised due to it. Europol accused that the terrorist organisations took disadvantage of this polarisation to vitiate the atmosphere in the society.

The Europol report even speaks about the terrorist attacks carried out in Europe in the last year. There had been 11 terrorist attacks in Europe, and 21 people were killed in the attacks. Furthermore, the report draws attention to the fact that most of the attacks were from the ‘Lone Wolf’ category. The European agencies foiled more than 40 terror attacks and plots, and it is said that more than 400 suspects were arrested. Besides, the hand of terrorist organisation IS was found in most of the attacks, the report said.

24 attacks by the members of the leftists and anarchist organisations in Italy are also mentioned in the report.

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