On Friday, a 15-year-old boy of Iraqi-Kurdish descent identified as Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar gunned down a police employee leaving the headquarters of the New South Wales Police.
Advertisement
Police arrested four people Wednesday in connection with the slaying of a civilian police worker in a Sydney suburb that officials have said they believe was linked to terrorism. Over 200 officers converged on the lads aged 16 to 22 near the Western Sydney neighborhood where a teen gunned down New South Wales cops officers staffer Curtis Cheng on Friday., cops officers stated.
Police are still urging calm within the community, as Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas told media on Monday that people must not allow the attack to “divide us, tear us apart, to start finger pointing at each other or to start taking revenge on each other”.
‘It’s the job of the police, they have to protect us and take care of its people, ‘ she said.
Following the shooting, a series of raids were made across Sydney this Wednesday.
Scipione said the 15-year-old had no criminal record.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn had said on Wednesday Jabar was not on the radar of counter-terrorism agencies, and “not somebody we would have assessed as a threat”.
Also arrested as part of Operation Appleby in September 2014.
Australian conservative social commentators have been describing the Arthur Phillip High School and surrounding area as a hot-bed for extremism.
So far the parents of the students have been kept in dark about the developments and the last message they received from the school was on Tuesday, when a 17-year-old was arrested on charges of threatening police. Jabar was shot dead by police who believe he may have had accomplices.
He said he had received briefings in a recent visit to the U.S. and the United Kingdom, including with the US State Department, that demonstrated those countries were facing similar challenges with the issue of radicalisation of vulnerable youth.
Keeping a Sydney teenage terrorism suspect in Australian Federal Police (AFP) custody without charge could amount to a form of torture, lawyers say.
Authorities on Sunday searched a mosque Jabar is believed to have attended with police saying a few of those arrested Wednesday also used the facility.
Advertisement
Canberra is concerned about the prospect of lone-wolf attacks by individuals inspired by groups such as Islamic State, and has cracked down on Australians attempting to travel to conflict zones including Syria and Iraq.
