An attempt to attack a police station is likely a “sad and futile” bid by dissident republicans to “make themselves relevant” ahead of the anniversary of the Easter Rising, a senior officer has said.
Police said a delivery driver was lured to Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan on Monday night where he was hijacked and forced to drive a “crude but viable” device to the town’s police station.
The device, which was placed in the boot of the car, has been described as “about the size of a briefcase” and was said to have “carried a huge amount of danger”, putting both the driver of the car and those in the station at risk.
It comes ahead of the annual marking of the 1916 Easter Rising which led to the independence of the Republic from British rule in 1922.
Speaking to the media in Lurgan on Tuesday, Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson described the incident as “clearly planned”.
If carried out by dissidents, it would be one of the most serious attacks since the shooting of senior detective John Caldwell in Omagh in February 2023.
“Whilst we’ll keep an open mind in this investigation, we very much suspect that it is dissident republican terrorists involved, and I suspect that this is a sad and futile attempt to make themselves relevant as we move towards Easter,” Mr Henderson said.
“I want to be very clear as the people of Lurgan are, and the people beyond Lurgan, that those relics from the past have no place with society today.
“We all treasure the peace which has been built here in Northern Ireland, they detest it, they want it disrupted, they want to bring us back to a place that no one wants to be in.
“We can’t afford that to happen and together we will stop it happening.”
He added: “We’ll be looking at all options in terms of who could have done that, but it seems obvious to us that it is likely to be dissident republicans.”
The assessed threat level for dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland remains substantial.
Mr Henderson said: “That’s not something to be shirked away from nor something that we do not see as part of our daily policing.
“Sadly this attack was something that we have prepared for, to anticipate as part of policing here in Northern Ireland, very sadly.
“An attack like this is thankfully rare, we know that our staff, not just working here in Lurgan but elsewhere, will be worried and concerned about the potential for an attack on other premises.
“That’s why over the coming days we will be increasing our policing footprint in and around police stations to prevent but also to reassure our own people that we are doing absolutely everything in our power to bring to justice those who have committed this act.”