Twenty-three civil society organisations (CSOs) in Tunisia have condemned the Akouda attack in the coastal town of Sousse.
According to security officials in the country, a police officer, Sami Mrabet, was killed and another wounded in the attack.
Development Diaries learnt that three assailants were shot dead after the incident.
The suspected militants were reported to have rammed their vehicle into a National Guard checkpoint at a junction near the city’s port.
‘A patrol of two National Guard officers was attacked with a knife in the centre of Sousse’, National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli said, according to the AFP.
‘One died as a martyr and the other was wounded and is hospitalised.
‘This was a terrorist attack’.
Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office has ordered the arrest of two individuals over their alleged involvement in the attack.
The first suspect had been arrested for having closely watched the security patrol, subject of the attack, while the second is accused of having been aware of the attack.
In a joint statement, the CSOs said, ‘This Takfiri scourge is just the result of cultural and educational desertification that has been planned and financed for decades at the local, regional and international levels, with the aim to sow hatred among Tunisians, divide them and destroy all means of defence’.
The organisations noted that counter-terrorism required a comprehensive approach.
‘This requires, first of all, to uncover the truth about the local and regional networks that support and finance terrorism in Tunisia and then to prosecute all those responsible’, the statement added.
The organisations that signed the statement included the Tunisian Coalition against Death Penalty, the Tunisian Association for Defence of Academic Values (ATDVU), the Tunisian Association for Positive Prevention, and the Union of Unemployed Graduates.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse
Photo source: Getty Images
