Danish cartoonist's attacker linked with al-Qaeda

Copenhagen, Jan 2: The Danish cartoonist, whose caricatures of Prophet Mohammad enraged the Muslim community across the world in 2005 and 2006, was attacked by a Somali man, who is believed to have links with the terror organisations like al-Qaeda.

The 28-year-old man was shot in the leg and hand, and left wounded by the Danish police when he tried to break into Kurt Westergaard's home in the town of Aarhus late on Friday, Jan 1.

In a statement released on Saturday, Jan 2, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service PET said that the Somali man had "close ties to the Somali terror organisation al-Shabaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa."

The agency also added that he was "suspected of being involved in terror-related activities in East Africa".

"PET looks very seriously upon this case which once again confirms the terror threat directed against Denmark and the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular," PET chief Jakob Scharf is quoted as saying.

The attacker, who came armed with a knife and an axe, threw the axe at a policeman while trying to break into the cartoonist's home.

The man would, therefore, be charged with attempting to kill Westergaard as well as the police officer.

This comes after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested two Pakistan-origin men David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana in Oct 2009 under the suspicion that they were planning attacks on Westergaard and his newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published the infamous caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

OneIndia News