| |
|
 |
Chad
halts "holy war" by Muslim leader, 70 killed |
 |
| |
(July
4,2008) N'DJAMENA - Chad said on Wednesday
its security forces had killed 66 followers of an Islamic spiritual
leader who was threatening to launch a holy war against Christians
and atheists from Africa to Europe.
The 28-year-old Muslim holy man, or "sheikh", Ahmat Ismael
Bichara, was arrested after hundreds of his disciples armed with swords,
spears, bows and clubs fought gendarmes armed with automatic rifles
at a southeastern village on Sunday and Monday.
Four members of the Chadian security forces were also killed and six
wounded in the one-sided battles at Kouno, 300 km (185 miles) southeast
of the Chadian capital N'Djamena. Bichara, his lip bloodied, wearing
a white robe and reciting verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book,
was presented by the authorities to journalists in N'Djamena on Wednesday
along with seven of his captured followers.
Ministers in the landlocked ethnically mixed African country, where
just over the half the population is Muslim, said the government had
been obliged to act against the Islamic holy man to stop him triggering
a religious war in the country.
"Since June 3, he has been calling on all Muslims to prepare
to engage in a holy war against Christians and atheists, saying that
the war would be launched from Chad to as far as Denmark," Security
Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir told journalists. |
| |
|
