On 25 September 2020, two people were injured in a stabbing outside the former headquarters of the French satirical magazine ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

'' in Paris. The magazine's headquarters had previously been the site of an Islamic terrorist attack in 2015. The

French Interior Minister Minister of the Interior (french: Ministre de l'Intérieur; ) is a prominent position in the Government of France. The position is equivalent to the interior minister in other countries, like the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom, the Minis ...

Gérald Darmanin considered this to be "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism." A man from Pakistan, suspected of carrying out the attacks, was arrested near the scene. Six other suspects were subsequently arrested in Paris in connection with the attack.

Investigation

Main suspect

The main suspect was identified as a 25-year-old Pakistani man, who is charged with "

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...

in association with a terrorist enterprise." The suspect acknowledged having carried out the attack for religious reasons. He claimed to be 18 in order to be eligible for social welfare benefits. Before the attack, he stated in a video that he was seeking vengeance against ''

'' for publishing caricatures of Islam's prophet Muhammad. The suspect left his village in the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

region in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in early 2018 and came to Europe, following his brothers and other young men from the village. According to

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, villagers considered the suspect a hero for carrying out the Paris attack. The suspect's father championed his son's actions, but was warned by Pakistani police against speaking publicly. In France, the suspect moved to Pantin, a working-class district with many immigrants from North Africa,

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

and Pakistan. He shared an apartment with several other Pakistanis above a Hookah bar.

Four arrested in December 2020

In December 2020, four Pakistanis aged 17 to 21 were found to have been in contact with the assailant by authorities and were taken into custody. Two were apprehended in the

Gironde Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,62 ...

, a third in

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

social media network where the suspects expressed their hatred towards Muhammad caricatures and "glorified" the assault by their compatriot.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paris stabbing attack, 2020

Stabbing attack Stabbing attacks, which have been used as a terrorist tactic for thousands of years, became an increasingly common form of terrorist attack on random civilians in the 21st century, in particular during the 2010s and 2020s. Like the vehicle-rammin ...

2020 stabbing attack Charlie Hebdo 2020 stabbing attack Islamic terrorist incidents in 2020 September 2020 crimes in Europe September 2020 events in France Stabbing attacks in 2020 Mass stabbings in France Terrorist incidents in France in 2020 Attacks on buildings and structures in 2020 Attacks on mass media offices in Europe Attacks on buildings and structures in Paris

Investigation

Main suspect

Four arrested in December 2020

See also

References