Driver rams car into crowd in Germany leaving 1 dead
Mannheim, March 3: One person was killed and others injured when a car rammed into a crowd Monday in the western German city of Mannheim, police said as they asked the public to stay away from the downtown area and remain in their homes. A suspect is in custody. Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm said that a driver drove into a group of people in Paradeplatz, a pedestrianized street in Mannheim, killing one person. Several people were injured, he said, but police can’t yet specify how many or how badly. While police would not immediately characterize Monday’s incident as an attack, cars have been used as deadly weapons in several acts of violence in recent months. (AP)
1 dead, 4 hurt in stabbing attack in Haifa, Israeli officials say
Jerusalem, March 3: A man in his 60s was killed and four other people were wounded in a stabbing attack Monday in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, police said. Israeli authorities said the assailant was killed. Police said they were treating the stabbing, which took place in a central transit hub, as a militant attack. A security guard and a civilian killed the attacker, who police said was an Arab citizen of Israel who had recently returned to Israel after some time abroad. The attack took place as regional tensions are high surrounding the fate of the ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility for it. (AP)
‘Police, Islamists demolish 120-yr-old worship place’
Lahore, March 3: A 120-year-old worship place of the minority Ahmadi community was demolished by police on the pressure of a radical Islamist party in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a community organisation said on Monday. The police also detained five Ahmadis for protesting the demolition of their worship place in the Chatha area of Gujranwala, some 80 kms from Lahore. “A team of police personnel along with the members of the radical Islamist party (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan) entered the Ahmadi worship place last week and demolished it. They cut down minarets with a grinder,” Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said. Under the law, the Ahmadi worship places built before 1984 cannot be demolished. “And this structure was built 120 years ago,” the JAP said. The Gujranwala police said that it demolished the Ahmadi worship place on complaints that it had minarets like that of a Muslim mosque, which cannot be allowed. (PTI)
