MINNA (Nigeria), Aug 16 — Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger have raided an Islamic community and detained hundreds of men, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast.
Niger state police commissioner Mike Zuokumor said officers backed by reinforcements from the capital Abuja had surrounded the compound of the Darul Islam community on the edge of the town of Mokwa early yesterday.
"We received a series of reports about the activities of the sect from neighbouring communities, the local government and the emirate (traditional leader)," Zuokumor said.
"Some of them were expressing apprehension concerning the activities of the group and it is our duty to ensure law and order among the citizens of the state," he said.
Local journalists said around 600 men, some thought to be from the countries of Niger and Chad, were taken to a nearby school for questioning by police and immigration officers. As many as 3,000 people were believed to live in the community.
Zuokumor said police had received reports that Darul Islam was forcibly holding women to be the wives of sect members. The arrests were peaceful and no shots were fired.
The leader of the sect, Amrul Bashir Abdullahi, originally from the northern state of Kano, told reporters he had lived in Mokwa for 17 years and denied that his movement was radically opposed to Western education.
"We are not against Western education as we are being accused, but we have our own belief which is not in any way an infringement of the state authorities," he said after being detained.
Abdullahi said he had decided to start the Darul Islam group in isolation from the wider community in order to escape social ills such as "corruption, drunkenness and prostitution".
Africa's most populous nation is roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslim and more than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side. But there have been frequent bouts of religious violence.
Clashes three weeks ago between the security forces and members of a radical Islamic sect called Boko Haram killed close to 800 people in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, more than 800km away from Niger state. — Reuters
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