With Belgium on high alert, authorities in Brussels have begun cracking down on suspected insurgents in the city. However, as investigators piece together the puzzle forming the parts of the deadly attacks last Tuesday, a number of disturbing security lapses have emerged.
Belgian prosecutors working on the investigations have pointed out that authorities committed a serious security flaw in the days leading up the deadly bombings, which left more than 30 people and injured hundreds more.
Prosecutors have stated that days before the fateful terror strike, Salah Abdeslam, an ally of the bombers and an individual suspected of having close connections to the deadly Paris attacks last year, was questioned by investigators. However, investigators neglected to ask the apprehended suspected terrorist about a number of pertinent details.
Alleged to be the logistics chief of the Paris attacks, Abdeslam was captured by Belgian authorities on March 18. During his interrogation, investigators questioned him intensively. However, his interrogation allegedly focused on his connections to the Paris attacks.
Thus, despite an overlying fear that there are active terror groups in the country, Belgian authorities, having one of the most notorious suspected terrorists in their hands, neglected to push Abdeslam to give up pertinent information about Belgium's terror groups and possible attacks that were being planned in the European country.
This was, despite the fact that Abdeslam's fingerprints were discovered in an apartment rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui, one of the bombers who attacked the Belgian capital last Tuesday. In a special session of Parliament on Friday, Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens addressed the issue.
"We cannot exclude that, if everybody had been perfect, this could have gone differently," he said.
Unfortunately for Belgian authorities, their alleged lapses came at a very high price.
The nation has since started to get back on its feet. Belgian authorities have also been on the move to crush any insurgents left in the city. Just last Friday, a man was apprehended after being shot in the leg by the police.
People, many of whom are still in shock about the tragic event, have also begun to rebuild. Little by little, Brussels is beginning to look like its old self, with its streets filled with people. Within the normalcy of everyday Belgian life, however, lies the innumerable armed police who are patrolling the streets. For many, the presence of the authorities is a welcome sight.
"It makes me safe," a Brussels woman said.
