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Ali Tounsi, the chief of Algeria’s national police, was shot dead at his headquarters in central Algiers on Thursday when a fellow officer allegedly fired his pistol in a fit of insanity.
According to the Algerian Interior Ministry, “The death of Ali Tounsi ... took place during a working session, in the course of which a police official, apparently gripped by an attack of madness, used his weapon and fatally wounded Colonel Tounsi.”
The ministry also said that after the shooting the attacker shot himself and was taken to hospital for treatment to his wounds.
There is no official confirmation regarding the shooter’s identity but according to Ahmed Tazir, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Algiers, the prime suspect is thought to be Chaib Ouldtach, a 64-year old retired army colonel and a friend of the deceased.
A judicial enquiry has been opened to determine the circumstances of the killing.
The police force headed by Tounsi played an important role in the Algerian government’s effort to stamp out the long-running insurgency by Islamist militants.
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Comments (1)
ali tounsi was and rest for ever an eternal real algerian hero.
i am a simple and a humble algerian researcher and educator .in my opinion this man is a real algerian moudjahid in our war and revolution against the frinch colonialism rule in our liberated country in the past and he is actually the martyr of democracy he his the soldier of the triomph of democratic ideas this respectable man is a real revolutionary man he was the son of our aln-fln this algerian front wich liberated the country ;;; when i was informed of his assassination i have the mathematical certitude that this hero is like for example the correct revolutionary in the humanistic frinch revolution 1789 : robespierre maximilian ; this man always show us that there is no one can exterminate the ideas of our national front of leberation his death is a big loss for the police institution but the life must be continud and the democratic lesson is a giant lesson ;;oh my god give him the habitation in your paradise he is the new martyr of our algeria and the stability of it ........
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