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Japan security agency creates video on Aum atrocities

A pedestrian walks past a TV screen flashing news about Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after the execution of six other members of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult, in Tokyo on July 26, 2018. (AFP/file)
A pedestrian walks past a TV screen flashing news about Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after the execution of six other members of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult, in Tokyo on July 26, 2018. (AFP/file)
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21 Dec 2019 09:12:36 GMT9
21 Dec 2019 09:12:36 GMT9

TOKYO: Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency has released a video explaining the atrocities committed by now-defunct doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo ahead of the 25th anniversary next year of its deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.

The video was created to maintain public awareness of the Aum crimes, which could be in decline due to the growing number of people born after the subway attack. This is the first video on Aum activities produced by the agency.

The March 20, 1995, sarin attack killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000 others. The roughly three-minute-long video also points out that successor cults such as Aleph and Hikari no Wa still worship Aum's former leader, Chizuo Matsumoto, who was executed last year. He went by the name of Shoko Asahara.

The video, posted on YouTube, says that some 100 people, mostly young people, are joining Aleph every year through social media and events held by the group. It says that many victims who survived the subway attack and relatives of those killed in the incident have yet to receive compensation payments from the successor groups, despite their assets growing year by year.

"Aum is not something long ago, but is an ongoing issue," the video concludes.

"Young people who don't know of the (sarin gas) incident are increasing, and such people are being targeted as potential recruits," an official of the agency said. "We want people living near facilities related to the cult to share the issue with the whole society."

Jiji Press

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