In new threat, Albanian terrorist commander boasts that it was his group’s 2015 attack which took down the VMRO led Government

Albanian terrorist commander Muhamed Krasniqi, who goes by the name of “Commander Maliseva”, wrote a new threatening message aimed at the VMRO-DPMNE party and its leader Hristijan Mickoski, who called members of the group cowards after their attack on Mile Janakieski and Spiro Ristovski, VMRO political prisoners held in the same prison as the group.

Krasniqi and another leader of the group, Sami Uksini, welcomed the beating of Janakieski and Spiro Ristovski by two of the terrorists who are sentenced to life in prison after they took part in the attack on the city of Kumanovo in 2015, in which they killed eight Macedonian officers. Their threats are aimed at all VMRO officials who face arrest in the politically motivated cases initiated by the Zaev Government to destroy the opposition party. In his latest message, Krasniqi boasts that it was his group’s attack which took down the Nikola Gruevski led VMRO Government.

We are the ones who brought you from power with our rifles, you and your Russian supporters. You were terrorising the country and we took down the regime of your criminal and terrorist Nikola Gruevski and we defend the people. We are heroes and you are cowards, Krasniqi wrote on Facebook from prison.

The attack on Kumanovo happened at the beginning of the political crisis instigated by the SDSM party, which claimed international support for removing the VMRO-DPMNE led Government.  It is widely believed that it was this that encouraged the Kosovo based terrorist group to deploy in Kumanovo, along with heavy weaponry. Macedonian forces suffered serious casualties while going door to door to neutralize the group, given the imperative to avoid civilian casualties. Ten terrorists were killed in the operation, while about 30 were captured. Since the appointment of the SDSM led Government, which is dependent on votes from ethnic Albanian parties to maintain its majority, the group practically runs the Skopje prison, gives frequent interviews to the Albanian press and freely posts declarations and pictures on the social media.