Friday, September 13, 2013
Reports from Buloburte town, 200 km north of Mogadishu, confirm
that militants loyal to Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group, carried
out execution, hand and leg amputations yesterday.
At a town square, the militants first fired at the head of a man named as Ahmednur Sheikh Ali.
He
was charged and found guilty of spying for the Somali government and
for the peacekeepers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia
(Amisom).
“The spy was apprehended by Hisbah (the Al-Shabaab militants in charge of public order,” said a local judge.
Another
man, Liban Abdi Fidow, who was accused of robbing cargo from a truck
along a highway in the district, had an arm and a leg from the opposite
sides of his body cut off.
The militants displayed an AK47 Assault rifle said to have been used by the amputated man to rob passengers and motorists.
According to the residents in Buloburte, both men were known to belong to Al-Shabaab but not seen in the area for some time.
Other
reports indicated that the men were accused of planning to assassinate
Sheikh Fu’ad Mohamed Khalaf alias Sheikh Shongole, a senior Al-Shabaab
official, who was present at the site of the execution and amputations.
Sheikh
Shongole is one of the Al-Shabaab leaders sought by the US due to his
alleged links with terrorism and $5m reward on him.
Sheikh
Mohamed Mire, the wali (governor) in Hiran region in Central Somalia
told hundreds of people who were called to witness the event that the
extremist movement would not comprise the full implementation of Shareah
(Islamic laws).
“We sacrificed our lives for the Laws of Allah,” said Sheikh Mire. “We shall continue implementing them,” he added.
In
April, Al-Shabaab executed a woman of Somali origin suspected of being
an American spy by means of a firing squad in Buloburte town.
The
courts serving the Al-Qaeda linked movement are often blamed by human
rights activists in Somalia for delivering justice that allegedly lacks
of proper evidence, absence of defense lawyers and hastily reached
verdicts.
On Wednesday, moderate religious
personalities who held a five-day conference in Mogadishu, announced
their commitment to fight extremism in whichever form it is manifested
in Somalia.
They supported the parliamentary decision
in 2009, outlining that all legislations in Somalia should not
contradict Islamic laws (Sharea).
The clergymen issue a
Fatwa (a binding religious opinion); stressing that the genocidal acts
of Al-Shabaab must not be tolerated.
“Al-Shabaab is a
group with a misleading message and programme, which endangers the very
existence of Islam and the Somali people,” partly read the Fatwa.
It
added, “The Somali government is a Muslim entity and cannot be
categorised as Murtad (people who abandoned Islam - as claimed by
Al-Shabaab loyalists).”
According to the declaration
issued by the moderate Islamic leaders, Al-Shabaab must renounce its
extremist ideology and seek Allah’s forgiveness.
The proclamation added, “No one is allowed to join Al-Shabaab or offer support to the radical movement.”