MADRID (Sputnik) — Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero also urged to avoid declaring mosques as places of crime because those are "places where people pray."
"In Catalonia, there are approximately 200,000 Moroccans who contribute to normal life of this country, who pray, who work, who participate in life together, and so it is highly unfair to try to present the Muslim community as a hot source of radicalization," President of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont said during a press conference.
He also added that at the moment investigators cannot definitely say how the radicalization of young people who committed the attacks happened. Most of the 12 offenders are Moroccans, but the police had no information about their possible ties to terrorists.
Earlier in the day, Trapero confirmed that 12 people were allegedly involved in plotting the attack. Four of them were arrested and five others were killed. The identities of three criminals were established. Two or three more attackers allegedly died in an explosion in the Catalan town of Alcanar, while one suspect remains at large.
On Thursday, a van plowed into a crowd of pedestrians on Las Ramblas street in Barcelona, killing 14 people and injuring more than 130 others, in what police said was an act of terrorism.
Hours after the incident, another vehicle attack took place in the coastal town of Cambrils, south of Barcelona, killing one and injuring five civilians as well as a police officer. Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
