Nigerian police kill Islamist leader, face criticism (Lead, Changing dateline)

NAIROBI/ABUJA - Nigerian police Friday hailed the killing of the leader of an Islamist sect as a victory over extremism, but human rights workers called for an investigation into his death.

Mohammed Yusuf, 39, whose Boko Haram sect caused mayhem and hundreds of deaths across northern Nigeria this week, was shot Thursday night as security forces cracked down on his followers.

“Mohammed Yusuf was killed by security forces in a shootout while trying to escape,” a police spokesman told Nigerian television.

Boko Haram, which was formed in 2002, wants to impose sharia, or Islamic law, across the whole of Nigeria and is also opposed to Western education.

Yusuf was captured after the Nigerian military stormed his compound and a mosque in the town of Maiduguri in Borno state.

Some reports suggest that as many of 100 militants were killed in the army assault. Blood-stained bodies of young men littered the streets after the battle.

The streets of Maiduguri were quiet Friday, although many members of Boko Haram were believed to be still at large.

Yusuf was paraded before local journalists after his capture. Several hours later, he was dead, supposedly shot while escaping.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into Yusuf’s death, saying it believed it to be unlawful.

Extrajudicial killings are common in Nigeria. Police have on many occasions been accused of murder in the restive Niger Delta, where militants have been conducting a campaign of sabotage against oil facilities.

Boko Haram, which is sometimes called the Nigerian Taliban, launched a series of attacks on police stations Sunday.

President Umaru Yar’Adua, who is himself a Muslim from the north, authorised the army to take whatever action was necessary to restore order.

The police and army quickly struck back with brutal force. At least 300 people are believed to have died, the majority of them militants, although civilians are also among the dead.

Earlier, a Prensa Latina report said that 600 people were killed in the violence.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with around 150 million inhabitants, is split between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south.

The north has been gradually implementing stricter Islamic law, which has led to trouble with Christian groups.

Clashes in Bauchi state earlier this year left five people dead and several churches and mosques gutted by fire.

Hundreds died in the city of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, last November when local elections degenerated into bloody clashes.

However, radical Islamism has not taken root in the same way as across much of North Africa. Analysts say this is due to a strong sense of cultural and religious identity in northern Nigeria.

The north is Nigeria’s poorest region, and observers say that outbreaks of localised violence that have killed thousands in recent years have their roots in this poverty.