(Washington) Police in the US state of New Mexico said on Saturday they are investigating a possible link between the murders of three Muslims and that of another Muslim man last year, growing of voices rising to denounce ethno-culturally motivated crimes.
Posted at 12:07 a.m.
Albuquerque police said in a statement they found the body of a fourth victim overnight Friday through Saturday. She did not identify him, but said he was in his twenties, Muslim and “from South Asia”.
“Investigators believe this murder may be linked to three recent murders of Muslim men also from South Asia,” the statement said.
Among these victims, two are Pakistani, one was 27 years old when his body was found on 1er August, and the other 41, whose body was found on July 26, both this year.
Detectives are now investigating whether these murders are linked to the death of an Afghani man who was killed on November 7, 2021 outside the business he ran with his brother in Albuquerque, the statement details.
Police ordered anyone with information to call a hotline and said the FBI was assisting in the investigation.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed outrage at the attacks and said she stood in solidarity with the Muslim community in the southwestern US state.
“The targeted killings of Muslim residents of Albuquerque are deeply angered and completely intolerable,” Ms.me Lujan Grisham.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest American Muslim civil rights group, announced on Saturday that it was offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of the suspicious.
“This tragedy affects not just the Muslim community, but all Americans,” noted Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director. “We must be united against hatred and violence, regardless of the ethnicity, faith or origin of the victims and perpetrators”.