Japan on alert after execution of doomsday cult founder

Author: Agencies

Japan was on alert on Saturday amid fears that the executions of the former leader and members of a doomsday cult behind the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995 could spark acts of retaliation by supporters or newly formed groups.

Japan hanged Shoko Asahara on Friday and six other members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 13 people in an attack that shattered the country’s myth of public safety.

Police and the Public Security Intelligence Agency were collecting intelligence and monitoring followers of Asahara, Kyodo news agency said on Friday, citing warnings by a senior police official that Aum followers remained active. The agency said it searched 16 facilities belonging to three groups across Japan on Friday, including those of the cult’s formal successor and a splinter organisation launched by a former Aum spokesman, Kyodo reported.

Published in Daily Times, July 8th 2018.

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