Two persons were hurt in the attack.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, unidentified attacker activated tear gas in a nightclub in the Trnje neighbourhood in Zagreb. Two persons were injured. The Zagreb Pride association announced that it was a hate crime focused against the participants in a LGBTIQ party which was taking place at the venue and called on the authorities to condemn the attack and on the police to quickly find the perpetrators, reports Jutarnji List on February 12, 2017.
The police announced that an unknown perpetrator activated irritant substance at the club at around 3.30 am. While trying to leave the venue, two people have suffered minor injuries. Criminal investigation regarding this incident is in progress, according to a statement posted on the website of the Zagreb Police Department.
Zagreb Pride said that it strongly condemned the attack. This act of hate violence resulted in several injured people who frantically tried to escape the venue, said Zagreb Pride and added that the police should conduct a prompt and effective investigation in order to identify and bring to justice those responsible for “this physical assault on citizens and take all appropriate measures in order to ensure peace, security and human rights for LGBT people in Zagreb and Croatia”.
“Over the past few months, we have been faced with the escalation of hatred in public, spurred by increasingly aggressive and louder discourse of the radical clerical rightwing circles, which is contrary to the constitutional values of Croatia, but which has been met with the tacit approval of the Croatian Government”, reads the statement.
Zagreb Pride points out that it has already warned about unresponsiveness of the government towards fascist outbursts, as well as about the restraint of the government in condemning all forms of incitement to hatred, adding that this attack “clearly and unequivocally demonstrated how thin line is between hatred and violence”.
We urge Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Interior Minister Vlaho Orepić and the government to resolutely, loudly and clearly condemn this act of violence and hate crime directed against human rights of LGBTIQ persons, citizens of the Republic of Croatia, and thereby show that hatred and violence are not the values of our society, said Zagreb Pride in the statement, adding that it would persist in fight for human rights and would not be silenced by tear gas.
