An armed Spanish police officer stands guard during a security operation at Colon square in central Madrid January 13, 2015. Photo: Reuters
MADRID: Spanish police arrested on Friday three Pakistani brothers who are suspected of spreading extremist propaganda via social media networks.
Officers detained the men, aged between 25 and 31, in an early morning raid on their home in the northeastern city of Lleida, a police spokesman said.
The brothers operated several social media accounts which they used to upload videos praising group executions carried out by Islamic State, the Taliban and other Pakistani extremist groups, police said in a statement. Police said the brothers had gathered a large group of followers in their attempts to spread extremist ideology.
Authorities have not yet determined if they were part of a larger network, Spain’s interior ministry said.
The raid comes just three days after a gun and suicide bomb spree at Istanbul's Ataturk airport that killed 44 people and which Turkish officials said appeared to have been carried out by the Islamic State group.
Spain has now detained 29 people suspected of belonging to or acting for militant groups since the beginning of the year.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2016.
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