Doubts cast on German train ‘lone wolf ’ attacker’s nationality
German authorities cast doubt on Wednesday on whether a teenager who went on an axe rampage on a Bavarian train was really an Afghan refugee, saying he might have been from Pakistan. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a “lone wolf ” attacker who appeared to have been “inspired” by the IS group but was not a member of the network.
“This is perhaps a case that lies somewhere between a crazed rampage and terrorism,” De Maiziere told reporters.
He said investigators were still trying to determine the true identity of the 17-yearold who was shot dead by police following the train attack in which he injured five people, two of them critically.
The IS group released a video on Tuesday purportedly featuring the assailant announcing in Pashto he would carry out an “operation” in Germany, and presenting himself as a “soldier of the group”.
German authorities authenticated the video.
However, security said they service had sources now think he might have pretended to be Afghan on arrival in Germany in 2015 in order to have a better chance of securing asylum, ZDF public television reported.
In the IS video the youth uses phrases of a dialect of Pashto spoken in Pakistan — not Afghanistan — and experts have indicated that his accent is also clearly Pakistani, ZDF said.
A Pakistani document was also found in his room.
De Maiziere noted however that both Afghanistan and Pakistan had Pashtun communities and said German authorities had received an application for family reunification from the teenager for relatives in Afghanistan.
He added that investigators were also looking closely at accounts from the assailant’s foster family that he received a phone call on Saturday informing him of the death of a friend in Afghanistan and whether his apparent distress over the news was a possible trigger for the attack.
Authorities on Tuesday found a handpainted IS flag and what they called a suicide letter addressed to his father among the attacker’s belongings.
Locals described the assailant as “calm and even-keeled” and a “devout who did not appear to be radical or a fanatic”, according to Joachim Herrmann, interior minister of Bavaria state.
Germany has thus far escaped the kind of large-scale attack seen in the southern French city of Nice last week, in which 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people.
Investigators were looking closely at accounts from the assailant’s foster family that he received a phone call on Saturday informing him of the death of a friend in Afghanistan.