Abdul Bashir was born in Afghanistan in 1994 and belonged to the Ismaili minority of the Shia Muslim community. He worked in Kabul as a telecommunications technician, reportedly employed by Huawei, before fleeing the country sometime around 2015 amid increasing instability.

By 2019, Bashir and his family were living in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, one of the most overcrowded and under-resourced refugee settlements in Europe. Tragedy struck on September 30, 2019, when a fire broke out in the camp. Bashir’s wife was among those killed. He and his three children — aged 9, 7, and 4 at the time of the Lisbon attack — survived. The fire deeply traumatized him, and in a video recorded in 2021 while still in Greece, Bashir expressed frustration and desperation, pleading for assistance from international aid organizations. He also spoke of his past career and his desire to restart his life.

In October 2021, Abdul Bashir was formally relocated to Portugal through a refugee resettlement agreement between Greece and Portugal. With the help of the Aga Khan Foundation, Bashir and his children were offered housing, food, and support services by Lisbon’s Ismaili Muslim Centre. He also received language lessons and support for job seeking. Despite the aid, Bashir struggled to find stable employment. His inability to speak Portuguese fluently further isolated him, and neighbors described him as polite but withdrawn.

Bashir’s application for refugee status in Germany had previously been denied, and as of early 2023, he was reportedly trying to leave Portugal again and move to Zurich, Switzerland, possibly with the hope of reaching Germany a second time.

He lived with his children in Odivelas, Lisbon, in a flat paid for by the Ismaili Centre.

On the morning of March 28, 2023, Abdul Bashir attended a Portuguese language class at the Ismaili Muslim Centre in Lisbon. At approximately 10:57 AM, he received a phone call that allegedly informed him he would not be granted an official document he had been waiting for. This call reportedly disrupted his plans to travel to Switzerland, where he had intended to relocate with his children. This news appears to have triggered a violent emotional breakdown.

Inside the classroom, Bashir pulled a large knife from his backpack and began threatening and attacking people. He injured the Portuguese language teacher and another Afghan refugee, both of whom survived with stab wounds. As the situation escalated, two women — 24-year-old Mariana Jadaugy and 49-year-old Farana Sahbudin Sadrudin — left their offices to intervene and were fatally stabbed.

Both victims were employees of Fundação FOCUS, a humanitarian organization connected to the Aga Khan Development Network. They had played central roles in managing Bashir’s integration into Portuguese society, including coordinating his housing, food aid, and naturalization application. The two women were deeply embedded in the Ismaili Centre’s outreach and refugee assistance programs.

Police responded to the scene within one minute of receiving the emergency call. Bashir was armed and refused to surrender his weapon. Officers shot him in the leg to neutralize the threat and arrested him on the spot. He was taken to São José Hospital for treatment before being transferred into custody.

Following the attack, members of the Ismaili Centre informed police that Bashir had developed an unhealthy obsession with Mariana Jadaugy, who had rejected his alleged romantic advances. This may have contributed to the motive behind the attack. A relative of one of the victims also described Bashir as impulsive and difficult, contradicting public perceptions of him as calm and respectful.

Initially, on March 29, authorities ruled out terrorism, citing no evidence of radicalization and attributing the act to a possible psychotic episode. However, by March 31, the Public Prosecution Service had not officially ruled out terrorism as a motive and stated the investigation was ongoing.

In the aftermath, Portuguese police awarded commendations to the officers who intervened, while Afghan community leaders in Portugal called for the maximum sentence possible under Portuguese law. Meanwhile, Greek authorities reopened investigations into the 2019 fire in the Moria refugee camp. Bashir had reportedly saved his children but failed to alert firefighters that his wife was still inside their shelter, raising further suspicions.