Pages

Sunday 3 August 2014

Kano Sallah Blasts: A Season Of Horror The People Can Never Forget


For the first time in the ancient city of Kano, hell was let loose in the week of Sallah celebration, a period that residents bask in the euphoria of both the spiritual and social life of the city. abubakar salihi in Kano writes that the last Eid-el Fitr was the worst moment for the residents of Kano.

Kano people, for the first time, have witnessed what could best be described as a week of horror marked by suicide bombings and discovery of Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs in mosques and other worship centres aimed at killing people enmass. This was during the last Eid-el Fitr celebration in the ancient city.
It was also the first Sallah celebration that many described as colourless in festivities considering the fact that cultural activities, visits to friends and relatives were not made possible owing to fear of possible attacks by insurgents, a bitter rumour that rented the air everywhere.
It could be recalled that on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, a high calibre IEDs were discovered by the police during a Jumat prayer in Kawo area of the city. The state commissioner of police, Alhaji Adenrele Shinaba while responding to the incident said the IEDs, if exploded, could have caused tremendous damage even in radius of kilometres away.
The explosives were first sighted by a 13 year old boy who raised alarm which eventually led to the abortion of serious causalities.
Also on the night of Sallah festivities, a white 504 Peugeot salon car was discovered at Isyaku Rabiu Mosque in Goron Dutse area under suspicious circumstances.
As the anti bomb squad screened the vehicle, they discovered that it contained high calibre explosives that can cause serious and unbelievable scale of deaths.
In his address to newsmen, Alhaji Shinaba also expressed great shock over the devilish intention of the insurgents who wanted to kill large number of people for no reason.
All these notwithstanding, on day Sallah, a female suicide bomber detonated explosives at Kofar Nassarawa area in Municipal Kano that killed her and injured three policemen.
It happened that a teenage girl had approached police officers on duty under the fly over bridge and blew herself off and injured others.
Another incidence occurred when an insurgent threw an IED inside Saint Charles Catholic Churchs at Zungeru road in Sabon Gari area in which about five people also died.
On the second day of Sallah celebration, a teen female suicide bomber blew off herself at an NNPC Mega filling station where people queued up to purchase kerosene early that day. As a result, three died and several others sustained various degrees of injuries.
Also, on the third day of Sallah another female suicide bomber detonated another explosive and killed one person and injured 18 others. This happened as graduates of the state polytechnic gathered at the Central Administration block of school located along the Bayero University Kano, BUK road to check the preliminary list from the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC for their mandatory one year service to their fatherland.
This and many more incidents shut down the entire city and also forced them to stay at home while children were denied their usual pleasure at the various amusement parks. It also forced the new of Kano, Mallam Sanusi Lamido II, to cancelled all the durbar celebrations that make the Sallah colourful.
Mallam Sanusi II, only seized the opportunity on the second day of Sallah to perform Hawan Daushe which means visiting his mother at Babban Daki.

No comments: