Marking the third anniversary of the attack by Serb gunmen on Banjska  in the north of Kosovo, family members, colleagues and political leaders gathered in the village on Thursday to commemorate the police officer who was killed there in 2023.

A foundation stone for a memorial to the policeman, Afrim Bunjaku, was laid. However, the main suspects, including the Kosovo Serb politician who took responsibility for the attack, Milan Radoicic, remain out of reach to Kosovo’s justice system.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti wrote on Facebook that “three criminals were killed during the operation that day, three have been in prison since then, and all the others will eventually face justice in our country”.

Kurti referred to the Serb gunmen as a “paramilitary terrorist group” and adding that the attack was “organised, directed, and financed by Belgrade and led by the arch-criminal Milan Radoicic”.

Minister of Interior Xhelal Svecla wrote on Facebook that Bunjaku made the ultimate sacrifice, saying that the Kosovo police had showed extraordinary professionalism that day.

“Three years ago, our Republic faced the largest terrorist attack in post-war Kosovo, organised and supported in every aspect by Serbia’s state apparatus,” Svecla wrote.

“In defence of legality, constitutionality and the safety of our citizens, Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku fell in the line of duty that day. Our Republic defended its territory, citizens, and constitutional order, triumphing over Serbia’s terrorism,” he added.

In April, the Pristina Basic Court convicted three Kosovo Serbs of terrorism and “serious acts against the constitutional order and security of Kosovo” by participating in the attack in September 2023.

Blagoje Spasojevic, 33, and Vladimir Tolic, 40, who were arrested in military fatigues at the scene, were sentenced to life in prison. A third suspect, Dusan Maksimovic, 29, who was seized the next day, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Announcing the verdict, Judge Ngadhnjim Arrni said that at 1 a.m. on September 24, 2023, the three defendants were part of a “well trained” group of Serbs who brought weapons, military camouflage and equipment, aiming to destabilise the “basic political, constitutional, economic, and social structures of the Republic of Kosovo through a well-organised plan” and through the attempted secession of the majority ethnic Serb north of the country.

All three pleaded not guilty. However, during the closing statements, Spasojevic called his participation in the events “the biggest mistake of my life”.

On the day of the attack, dozens of armed Serbs ambushed a police patrol in Banjska. Bunjaku, 50, was killed and another police officer, Clirim Shaqiri, was wounded. Three gunmen were killed but reports say others were injured and treated in Serbia, their fates unknown.

In total, 44 individuals and one legal entity were named in the indictment. Forty-three of them, including Spasojevic, Tolic and Maksimovic, were charged with terrorism and serious acts against the constitutional order and security of Kosovo.

A legal entity, RAD d.o.o., and its owner, Radule Stevic, were charged with money-laundering, as was one of the other 43 – the alleged ringleader, local Serb powerbroker, businessman and politician Radoicic.

Radoicic, former deputy leader of the Serbian-backed Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, is currently in Serbia. It is not known where the other suspects are.

Radoicic accepted responsibility for the attack. But Serbia, which does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, is unlikely to hand him over for trial.

According to the indictment, he had been financing a “structured terrorist group” since 2017, with the aim of “separating” four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo “to join them with the Republic of Serbia”.

The indictment said the attackers underwent training at the Pasuljanske Livade military training ground in central Serbia, just over 100 kilometres north of the Kosovo border, just days earlier, citing drone footage seized in Banjska.

It said that Serbia placed at the group’s disposal “all necessary” military infrastructure and logistics equipment “to commit the terrorist attack”.

In May 2026, a BIRN investigation traced the vehicles to a Belgrade-based car rental firm, Pent Rent, which is part of a network of businesses linked to two Kosovo Serbs – Zvonko Veselinovic and Radoicic. This network, which includes an electricity infrastructure firm owned by Pent Rent, has profited from a string of contracts with the Serbian state.

In October 2023, BIRN found that some of the mortar rounds and anti-tank rocket launchers used by the Serb attackers had passed through state maintenance centres in Serbia in 2018 and 2021, while ammunition included assault rifle rounds that match those made in 2022 by the Belom factory, a Serbian state arms producer.