BERLIN – A teenager arrested for his alleged involvement in a terror strike at a gurdwara in the German city of Essen 10 days ago is a “repeat offender”, the police said.
The 16-year-old youth was also arrested for an attempted burglary at a shop in the city a day before the attack. “As usual in the case of teenagers getting involved in petty crimes, the police set him free after interrogation, registering his personal details and initiating a criminal case against him,” the spokesman said.
The police are now investigating whether the terror suspect, identified as Mohammed B, and his 16-year-old accomplice Yusuf T had any links to the Salafists or other radical Islamist groups.
The duo is suspected of planting a bomb hidden in a backpack at the entrance hall of the Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurdwara.
The bomb exploded at the end of a wedding ceremony on April 16, injuring three persons, one of them seriously. Investigations are also focusing on how they got the instructions and the material to make a bomb, the spokesman said. The two suspects are currently in preventive custody.
