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Hungary’s Anti-Terror Police Prevents Armed Attack

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungarian anti-terror police have prevented an armed attack on October 23 when Hungary commemorates its 1956 Revolution against Soviet domination, after a tip-off from the U.S. Secret Service, sources said Monday.

The Hungarian Counter-Terrorism Centre announced that its forces raided a pub in Budapest, the capital, “where young people were planning an armed attack.”

The six detained youngsters included boys and girls, although none of them were found to be carrying lethal weapons at the time, intelligence sources said.

The Legenda Pub, where the raid took place, added in published remarks that “the young people were on their way when they were caught near the entrance” by police forces. “We weren’t even informed about it.”

The weekend raid confirmed Monday came just days before October 23, when mass rallies are expected from government supporters and the growing opposition to remember the 1956 revolution.

It began on October 23, 1956, with a few hundred university students protesting against Soviet repression, and snowballed to 200,000 protesters on the streets, with people rising around the country.

They demanded an end to one-party rule and appealed for press freedom and democracy. But 19 days later, some 100,000 Russian soldiers and thousands of tanks rolled into town and, in a bloody fusillade, devastated democratic hopes for another 35 years.

HIGH ALERT

Hungary, which became a democracy after dropping communism in 1989, is now among European nations on high alert for possible terror attacks.

The terror threats have been linked to the armed conflict in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran’s proxies, as well as the war in neighboring Ukraine.

Additionally, political and social tensions have been rising in Hungary, which faces significant economic challenges.

Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO military alliance, has experienced few terrorist or armed attacks since the 1990s.

Last year, police detained two German citizens, an Italian and a Hungarian, for allegedly attacking people in the Hungarian capital who they perceived as far-right.

One of them, Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old teacher, was recently released after she successfully ran for the European Parliament, granting her immunity.

In 2016, a Budapest bombing occurred when a young man detonated a nail bomb to kill two patrolling police officers. A policeman and a policewoman suffered injuries but survived the attack.

NAZI-SYMPATHIZERS

Earlier in 2008 and 2009, Nazi sympathizers obtained firearms and Molotov cocktails after using them in numerous attacks against Hungarian Gypsies, who preferred to be known as Roma, killing six people.

In 2004, Hungarian police said they prevented a terrorist attack on a Jewish museum in the capital and arrested three suspects of Arab origin.

The police raids came as then Israeli President Moshe Katsav arrived in Hungary for a three-day visit.

In 1991, a bomb exploded in Hungary as a busload of 28 Soviet Jews passed by on their way to the Budapest airport for a plane to Israel.

Jewish officials and authorities said two police escorts and six passengers were injured.

Prosecutors linked the bombing to a pro-Palestinian group called the “Movement for the Liberation of Jerusalem.” A German court said terrorist Andrea Klump must serve additional time in jail for aiding in the 1991 attack.