Kosovo police officers escort Milazim Haxhiaj on Sunday, July 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A plot to poison Prishtina’s water?

The five bearded men were briefly paraded in front of the cameras in handcuffs last week, their heads down and under the safe hands of masked special forces of the Kosovo Police, while being rushed through the doors of a court in Prishtina.

The group was arrested in the early hours of July 12 on suspicion of plotting a terrorist act near the dam of Badovc Lake, one of the main sources of water for Prishtina, after being spotted and detained by security guards.

According to police, the five suspects had uniforms without insignia and an ISIS flag, but what they were doing remains a mystery. Two of the suspects were arrested on terrorism charges in October and released.

Initial reports, which made headlines in international media, suggested it was a plot to contaminate the water supply. Police, however, did not find any contaminants with the suspects. An analysis of the water in Badovc also did not detect anything.

Prishtina’s public water company cut off the supply from Badovc, leaving large parts of Prishtina and its surroundings without water for several hours as tests were carried out.

The most recent arrests occurred amid a heightened terror threat in Kosovo and the region. It followed the release of a video (in English) in June from the Islamic State calling for attacks in the Western Balkans. The annual Fourth of July concert was canceled, and larger numbers of police officers in bulletproof vests have been patrolling the city.

By coincidence one of the suspects arrested last week, Fehmi Musa, was interviewed by Prishtina Insight earlier in June about the ISIS video.

“The endangered ones are the Serbs, Macedonians and Greeks, who have carried out wrongdoing towards Albanians,” Musa said, stressing that Albanians should not be worried. He called suicide attacks “haram” or forbidden under Islam, but said “Wrongdoers should be killed, but there are other ways to do it.”

Kosovo police officers escort an unidentified Kosovo Albanian man, a suspect in a terror plot, to a court in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Sunday, July 12, 2015. Kosovo authorities say they have cut off the water supply to tens of thousands of people in the capital after police arrested five suspects linked to the Islamic State group who allegedly were planning to poison a reservoir. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Kosovo police officers escort an unidentified Kosovo Albanian man, a suspect in a terror plot, to a court in Kosovo’s capital Pristina, Sunday, July 12, 2015. Kosovo authorities say they have cut off the water supply to tens of thousands of people in the capital after police arrested five suspects linked to the Islamic State group who allegedly were planning to poison a reservoir. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Musa’s Facebook profile has its share of ISIS propaganda. In one post he calls on believers to join jihad with ISIS, in another he has a map of Kosovo under the flag of ISIS.

As many as 20 people are being investigated in connection with the Badovc, authorities say. On Sunday, police reported finding an assault rifle and ammunition near the lake and were investigating possible links to the suspects.

The five suspects were given an initial 30-days detention as the case continues to be investigated.

03/07/2015 - 08:57

03 July 2015 - 08:57

Prishtina Insight is a digital and print magazine published by BIRN Kosovo, an independent, non-governmental organisation. To find out more about the organization please visit the official website. Copyright © 2016 BIRN Kosovo.