Scores Die As Radicals Clash With Police in Nigeria

Around 42 people including a soldier were killed yesterday in clashes between police and members of a radical Islamic sect in Bauchi after an armed team of the sect’s followers attacked a police station in retaliation for the arrests of their leaders, hospital officials and security sources said.

There were conflicting figures yesterday as to the exact number of those killed in the violence, and the state police command declined to give any figure.

"We have received a total of 42 bodies," Awwal Isa, a nurse at the Bauchi Specialist Hospital told AFP news agency by telephone. He said the corpses were of those involved in the fighting between the police and the radical sect.

A reporter for the Reuters news agency counted 32 bodies at two Bauchi police stations and said dozens were wounded among the more than 200 arrested. For his part, Police Force Public Relations Officer Emmanuel Ojukwu said the figure of those killed was in the dozens.

The incident was sparked off after a gang of around 60 men armed with guns and hand grenades attacked the Dutsen Tanshi Police Station, but retreated after a gun battle with the police, spokesman for the Bauchi police command Mohammed Barau said.

The police responded by raiding the group’s neighbourhoods and hideouts around the Bauchi Airstrip, arresting hundreds. Some of the items recovered from the group included army uniforms, boots, explosives and live ammunition.

Secretary of the Red Cross Adamu Abubakar said they took 16 wounded people to the hospital but declined to give the number of the dead, saying this was for the police to reveal. When our correspondent visited the Specialist Hospital, he was not allowed to talk to the victims of the clashes.

Source: Allafrica.com