Somalia’s most senior religious preachers has been in killed in Puntland.
Sheikh Abdulkadir Nur Farah, who is also known as Sheikh Abdulkadir Ga’amey, was Friday gunned down inside a mosque in Garowe town, the capital of the semiautonomous state of Puntland.
Garowe is some 1,000 km north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Witnesses said Sheikh Farah was in the middle of afternoon prayers at Beder Mosque when he was attacked by a young man wielding a pistol.
He was shot several times and died while being transferred to a hospital.
Puntland President Abdurahman Mohamed Farole, confirmed the Sheikh’s death and said that an outraged crowd had captured the gunman.
“He was a great sheikh who preached the true Islamic faith,” President Farole said.
“His only crime was that he was very critical of the methods of Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda,” he said, adding that the cleric would get a state funeral.
The President named the arrested suspect as Abdurahman Hussein Jama Bile.
Puntland security officials confirmed that a suspect had been detained and investigations were underway.
Officers also confirmed that the gunman also wounded three people while trying to escape from pursuers.
One of the injured was in a critical state.
Puntland leaders that Al-Shabaab militants who have been facing military pressure from African Union peacekeepers have been moving into their territory, leading to increased security problems in Puntland.
In January, several countries including Britain, Ireland and the US, issued travel advisories against Somaliland, a self-declared republic in north-western Somalia, citing increased terrorist threats.
Wirestory
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