DOZENS KILLED IN NIGERIA MOSQUE BLASTS

Kano, Nigeria, 5 Safar 1436/29 November 2014 (MINA) – At least 36 people have been killed and many others injured after two car bombs exploded outside the central mosque of north Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, just as residents were packing into the area for Friday prayers, local police say.

The blasts occurred outside the Emir’s Palace Mosque. Witnesses said they heard gunshots but did not know who was firing, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“Two bombs exploded, one after the other, in the premises of the Grand Mosque seconds after the prayers had started,” resident Aminu Abdullahi said, adding that a third went off nearby.

The AFP news agency earlier had put the death toll at 64.

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh said the blasts took place in the centre of Kano, the largest city in the country’s north.

“It was a very brazen attack in the centre of the city. The crowds at the mosque is usually the largest in the city during Friday prayers,”  Rageh,  reporting from Yola in the nearby Adamawa State, said.

The Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was said to be inside the mosque at the time, with the explosions happening in an outdoor courtyard.

There was also no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on Boko Haram armed group, which has for five years waged a vicious insurgency against the government.

Last week,  Sanusi, a respected Muslim figure, called on the people of Nigeria to defend themselves against Boko Haram.

“These people [Boko Haram], when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls… People must stand resolute,” he told the Daily Post website.

“People should be sensitised on the importance of being on the alert. And they should prepare, they should acquire what they will defend themselves with,” he was quoted as saying. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)