LONDON, 26 Feb. (DPA/EP) –
The Northern Ireland Police reported this Saturday the arrest of a sixth suspect for having participated in the attempted murder of a high-ranking officer in the city of Omagh perpetrated last Wednesday.
Chief Inspector John Caldwell, attacked at a sports center where he trains a youth soccer team, was shot in front of his son by at least two people on Wednesday night, the DPA agency reported.
Late this Saturday, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has reported that it has arrested a 71-year-old man in Omagh under the Terrorism Act.
The man, the sixth detainee in the investigation, will be questioned by detectives in the Musgrave Serious Crime Suite.
Meanwhile, five other men — ages 22, 38, 43, 45 and 47 — also detained in connection with the assassination attempt remain in custody.
In the early hours of Saturday, the PSNI reported that it had been given more time to question four of the men.
A spokesman for the Northern Irish Police explained that a Belfast court had granted an extension of the detention of four of the suspected men, aged 22, 38, 45 and 47, until 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 28.
Police have declared the New Irish Republican Army (New IRA) splinter republican group to be their main line of investigation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people have rallied to demand an end to paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland.
Omagh’s main street came to a standstill on Saturday as crowds gathered outside the courthouse for a rally in solidarity with Caldwell.
A short distance from the site where a 1998 Republican dissident bombing killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, they held signs reading: “There is no going back.”
Earlier, Beragh Swifts, the football club where Caldwell is a volunteer manager, led a solidarity march through the village of Beragh, just outside Omagh.
