Australia cops to ‘shoot extremists on sight’
SYDNEY: Australian police are being trained to shoot armed extremists on sight, it was revealed yesterday.
It is a change of tactics from “contain and negotiate” amid fears of further terrorist attacks raised by Fridaay’s atrocities in Paris.
Canberra has become increasingly concerned about the prospect of lone-wolf attacks by individuals inspired by groups such as the Islamic State. A tightening of counter-terrorism laws is under way.
Six attacks in Australia have been foiled over the past 12 months, according to the government, but several have not, including a police employee being shot in the back of the head in Sydney last month by a teenager reportedly shouting religious slogans.
In response, the country’s most populous state, New South Wales, has begun training police to shoot armed attackers immediately, rather than the “contain and negotiate” protocol that has been in place for decades.
“We’re at a point now where the ground has shifted, things have changed and starting with Mumbai onward, there’s been any number of attacks where you have a mobile enemy force, which moves through places and kills people,” Deputy New South Wales Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas told 2UE radio.
“We would be mad to continue to say we will do nothing but contain and negotiate.”
In November 2008, 166 people were killed in Mumbai when Islamist gunmen stormed luxury hotels, the main railway station, a Jewish centre and other sites in the booming Indian metropolis.
Since then, radical Islamist groups or individuals have carried out a number of attacks, culminating in the slaughter in Paris on Friday that left 129 dead.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said police forces needed all the resources and powers they could get to ensure the community was safe. “These brutal terrorists do not negotiate,” she said.
“I believe that Australian law enforcement authorities need all of the powers that they can [get] to ensure that Australians can be kept safe.”
Mr Kaldas stressed the “shoot on sight” order would not be appropriate in all circumstances.
Authorities raised Australia’s terror threat alert to high just over a year ago, introduced new national security laws and have since conducted several counterterrorism raids.