The Pakistani national who was among the seven arrested after a knife attack near the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in September 2020 was ‘inspired’ by the hardline Pakistani cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi and the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, a recent report has revealed.
The 26-year-old Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud had spent days watching videos of hardline clerics denouncing the Charlie Hebdo magazine on social media days leading to his stabbing attack in Paris. Recent investigations have revealed that Mahmoud, a Pakistani national, was inspired by Khadim Hussain Rizvi – the late leader of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan known for his radical views on blasphemy – and the Pakistan premier Imran Khan who had chastised the French President Emmanuel Macron over his critical comments on Islam.
“I couldn’t eat. I was crying watching the videos”, Mahmoud reportedly told his investigators.
Days before the stabbing attack in Paris, the French magazine Charlie Hebdo had re-released caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that caused a controversy in 2015. Such caricatures are deemed sacrilegious by Muslims. These cartoons were first published in 2015 which lead to an Islamist attack on the magazine headquarters where eight members of its staff, including the celebrated cartoonists, were killed.
Mahmoud told the investigators that he did not know that the Charlie Hebdo had moved their headquarters and that a new television company who had no links with Charlie Hebdo had moved there. He mistakenly attacked the personnel of the television company, a man and a woman, with a machete. The police immediately arrived at the scene and Mahmoud was arrested. Six others who had links with the attacks were also arrested by the French officials.
Mahmoud told the investigators that he initially thought of damaging the office buildings rather than attack the people. He also offered to apologize to the victims.
The investigators also found a video that Mahmoud had sent to a friend calling for the decapitation of “blasphemers”.