Suspected terrorist shot dead, 9 others in custody.

Morogoro Regional Police Commander Leonard Paulo shows journalists yesterday sachets of explosive gel police officers impounded from nine suspects in a mosque in Kilombero District. (Photo: Guardian Correspondent)

Police in Morogoro are holding nine people suspected to be terrorists affiliated with the Somali based terrorist group Al Shabab.

 

It is alleged that the suspects were found hiding in a mosque and in possession of some 30 explosives, military uniforms and other weapons.

 

According to the Morogoro Regional Police Commander SACP Leonard Paul, the suspects were arrested on Tuesday at the Sun Mosque in Kidatu division, Kilombero District and the suspects had in their possession, a black flag iconic to the Al Shabab.

 

 “We received the tip on April 14 this year that there is a suspicious group and we worked on it immediately,” he said noting that the suspects had attempted to evade capture.

 

“We were informed that the suspects left in two tricycles (bajaji)…we caught one of them and it had one passenger,” he detailed.“The driver was ordered to stop but the passenger took off on foot and police gave chase,” he went on to narrate. He said Corporal Nassoro, number F .3323 ran after him but the suspect turned on him with a dagger.

 

“Corporal Chomola, number E9245, who was close by shot the suspect in his foot,” he said and according to him, the public then attacked the shot suspect and set him on fire.

 

He named the suspect as one Hamad Makwendo a resident of Manyasini Ruaha within the district and said he is suspected to have been the host of the other nine suspects who were arrested later at the mosque.

 

Noting that the lynched suspect was found with six rounds of ammunition, the RPC said after calling for back up and following a tip, they pursued the remaining suspects at the Sun Mosque in Kidatu.

 

“After the police arrived at the mosque they requested the leader to order all the people who were in it to come out so that they can identify the suspects,” he said noting that it is then the police succeeded to arrest the nine suspects and retrieve the said items.

 

This is the most recent development in ongoing terror threats in country. Only in February this year, a military officer was killed, five others including two soldiers and three police officers seriously injured in a series of terrorist linked shoot-outs with a heavily-armed group in Tanga where three suspects were arrested.

 

The incident occurred at the Mikocheni Falls located at Amboni Village in Tanga Region where the Tanzania People’s Defense Forces (TPDF) soldiers in collaboration with local police battled an armed group mortally wounding four. 

 

Sources from the scene informed The Guardian that it was most likely that the armed group was an offshoot of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.

 

Early this month, bandits suspected to be terrorists, ambushed three police officers at the Kilwa roadblock in Coast Region at 20:00 hours, they killed two and severely injured another.

 

 In that incident, Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commander, Suleiman Kova told reporters in Dar es Salaam that the bandits made away with an SMG rifles and 30 rounds of ammunition.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN