BARCELONA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Barcelona's Mayor Ada Colau said that Aug. 17 should be set to remember the victims of the terrorist attack that saw 17 people perish in Barcelona with another victim in the seaside town of Cambrils a year ago.
Among the victims, 16 died in Las Ramblas when Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into crowds of people on the famous Barcelona street, leaving a further 131, from 34 different countries, injured.
Five other members of the terrorist cell were shot after a person was killed in Cambils in the early hours of the following morning, Abouyaaqoub was shot and killed on Aug. 21. The four additional terrorists are still in custody awaiting trial.
The Catalan region in northeast Spain has had a tumultuous 12 months since Aug. 17, 2017, with the celebration of an independence referendum ruled illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court, a short-lived unilateral declaration of independence from Spain and the subsequent temporary imposition of central rule from Madrid.
Several separatist leaders are currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of rebellion and sedition, while others, including former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemot, remain in exile.
Speaking in an interview in the Guardian newspaper on the anniversary of the attacks, Colau insisted Aug. 17 was not a day for protest over political issues, "I believe 17 August is for the victims," she said.
"I ask people to show their respect for what is a homage to those who died," she said.
Colau said the attack had "struck at the heart of the city which is Las Ramblas, the most loved and most international part of the city," but had made the city stronger instead.
"It's made the city stronger and more resilient. It's also made us fall in love with Las Ramblas again, which has become so overwhelmed with tourists that many Barcelonans avoid it. But after the attack, people went back," she explained.
The mayor also praised the people of Barcelona for their reactions to the terrorist attack and the tolerance they have displayed over the past year.
"A few days after the attack, we held an inter-religious and intercultural event to emphasize that we have to respect all cultures and languages. We had to state firmly that you can't criminalize an entire community," she told the paper.
