New Zealand officials have confirmed that 32-year-old Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen was the attacker who went on a stabbing spree at an Auckland supermarket.
He arrived in New Zealand from Sri Lanka ten years ago on a student visa. Police first noticed him in 2016 when he started posting support for terror attacks and extremism on Facebook. In 2017, police arrested him at an airport as he was heading for Syria presumably to join Daesh*. He was searched, and police found a hunting knife and some banned propaganda leaflets with him.
He was later released on bail but in 2018 police found another knife and extremist materials with him and Samsudeen was sentenced to three years in jail on several counts of possessing extremist videos and for breaching bail conditions.
On Friday, Samsudeen went to a supermarket in Auckland where he shouted "Allahu Akbar", which means "God is Great" and began stabbing random shoppers, causing panic among the visitors. He injured seven people before he was shot dead by police. As of 4 September, three of the victims remained hospitalised in critical condition and three more were in stable or moderate conditions. The seventh person has been recovering at home, authorities said.
*Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia.