Heavy security cordon thrown around scene of firefight as TPDF members and police comb the area for armed gang
IN SUMMARY
No concrete evidence has emerged so far to lend credence to widespread claims, especially in Tanga city, that the attackers were linked to terrorist groups.
Tanga. The gunmen who clashed with security forces in the Amboni caves in Tanga on Saturday are still at large, even as speculation intensified on the true nature of the assailants.
No concrete evidence has emerged so far to lend credence to widespread claims, especially in Tanga city, that the attackers were linked to terrorist groups.
There has so far been no indication from any foreign terror group citing existence of a local affiliate that could have been involved in the attack of considerably high magnitude.
The Citizen cannot therefore independently say who the gang members are and where they are from.
A huge cordon thrown around the caves and surrounding forests since Saturday was still in force as the police and members of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces continued their offensive.
Journalists were kept at bay for the second day of the operation as no information was coming from the battlefront, but frightened people who fled from a neighbourhood residential settlement and a quarry reported heavy police movements.
The event was the major discussion topic amongst shocked Tanga residents who were huddled in several groups and spoke in hushed tones, as they also waited for any significant news from the scene.
The Tanga Regional Police Commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP) Fraser Kashai, speaking from the operation base in Amboni over the phone, said that Police are still on an intense manhunt for the assailants who shot and killed a TPDF soldier and injured several others who are admitted in hospital.
He said no gang member had been arrested by yesterday afternoon, and couldn’t reveal how many of the attackers, who the police suspect are home grown militants, were involved in the fierce clashes.
Other sources revealed that a special security squad was deployed on Saturday night to reinforce the operation, one of whose component is a systematic combing of the caves.
The death of the TPDF soldier and the shooting of five others including one regular police are being blamed on an ambush by the armed gang members.
The fallen soldier who was shot in the stomach was yesterday identified only as Saidi.
He died on Saturday at the Bombo Regional Hospital and his body transported to Kwashemshi, in Korogwe District, for burial the same day.
Reports from the Karasha sub-location say that most of the villagers who had fled from their homes have not yet returned to their homes.
Young men who work in quarries around the caves have kept off the scene, pending a return to normalcy.
Journalists have laboured to get information from the Police and the hospital in vain.
Authorities barred them from entering the hospital where the injured soldiers are recuperating. Sources indicated that they were out of danger.
Tanga city was awash with news of the incident but many people refused to accept the explanation provided by the Police on dismissing reports of the group being linked to foreign terrorists.
They pointed to the fact that the area shared a common border with Mombasa, which has suffered insecurity blamed on terrorism.
Others also pointed to an online amateur video showing a hooded man admitting that their group was behind recent attacks on police stations, where they killed some officers and stole guns and ammunition.
In the video whose source cannot be independently authenticated, the man vows continued attacks against the police for unstated motives.
But according to the Police Director of Operations and Training, Mr Paul Chagonja, it was still too early to link the thugs with training by foreigners.
He explained this was because no gang member had been arrested to collaborate such claims.
“We do not know the identities of the gang members. We would be in a position to say something after catching them,” he said on Saturday.
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