After all the tell-tale evidence that became apparent within hours of the California massacre on Wednesday, the US authorities have finally announced that they are treating the year’s 355th mass shooting as an act of terrorism.
But they do not believe that the Pakistani-origin couple behind the San Bernardino killings are part of an organized terror network or terrorist cell. Instead, the thinking right now is the couple may have been self-radicalized extremists, apparently “inspired” by a foreign terrorist outfit.
“The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers, and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,” FBI director James B. Comey told reporters on Friday, but added: “There’s no indication that they are part of a network.”
“There’s a lot of evidence in this case that doesn’t quite make sense, and so we are trying to be very thoughtful,” he said, adding investigators were going through a very large volume of electronic evidence that the killers had tried to destroy.
Comey’s cautious comments came even as law enforcement officials disclosed that the female shooter, Tashfeen Malik, had posted a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook under a different name just as the attack was happening.
As Malik, a Pakistani citizen who entered America with a fiancée visa and obtained a green card in July this year, remains a mystery figure, US authorities have sought detailed information on her from Pakistan. Some analysts believe that Malik might have been the one to radicalise her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook.
Pakistani officials, according to reports, have already contacted Malik’s relatives in the layyah district of Punjab province. While her immediate family left for Saudi Arabia 25 years ago, relatives still live in layyah. Malik, who grew up in Jeddah, went back to Pakistan to study pharmacology and receive her bachelor’s degree in 2012 from Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan.
The first photograph of Malik, showing her in a veil, was put out by ABC News on Friday. lawyers for the Farook family described her as a stay-at-home mother who was soft-spoken and remained separate from the men even at home. The couple lived with Farook’s mother, who helped with th care of their six-month child.
President Barack Obama, meanwhile, used his weekly radio address to send out a strong message that America remains strong and “will not be terrorised”.
“We are Americans. We will uphold our values — a free and open society. We are strong. And we are resilient. And we will not be terrorised,” Obama said as he mourned the deaths, prayed for the recovery of the injured and saluted the first responders for their quick response.
“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror. And if so, it would underscore a threat we’ve been focused on for years — the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies,” he said, referred to ISIS and other terror outfits that are actively encouraging people around the world to commit terrible acts of violence, often as lone wolf actors. At the same time, he cautioned people against “falling victim to these hateful ideologies”.