Uganda police kill 2 in mosque

KAMPALA: Ugandan police said on Saturday they had stumbled upon a “radicalisation centre” at a Kampala mosque, shooting dead two people, arresting dozens and releasing over 100 women and children.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officers had found what appeared to be an Islamist radicalisation centre inside the mosque.

The discovery came on Friday evening as police offices followed a suspect, believed to have been involved in a high-profile kidnapping and murder earlier this year, into the ramshackle Usafi mosque.

During an ensuing shoot-out, police said, one officer was wounded, two men were shot dead and 36 arrested and accused of hoarding weapons.

Also inside the mosque were 18 women and 94 children who police said were being held against their will.

“A number of children and women, suspected to either have been kidnapped or held hostage, were rescued,” police spokesman Emilian Kayima said on Saturday.

“Two of the hostage-takers were shot dead after violently attacking and severely injuring one of the security officers,” Kayima said, adding that the man who police had followed into the mosque was taken into custody.

Local council official Hassan Kiberu said the mosque’s leader was arrested a month ago, after complaints from neighbours who suspected him of disseminating extremist messages.