National Security arrests Islamic cleric, students with terrorist links – Report

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National Security operatives late last week raided a community in the Savelugu Municipality and arrested over 30 persons who were believed to have links with terrorist groups across the region. A Joy News report said the raid took place in Nambahala near Biare last Friday and was specifically targeted at an Islamic School from where 33 persons were picked up and flown to Accra for questioning.

The report added that as of yesterday (September 8), 27 of the arrested party had been granted bail whiles the others, including a top Islamic cleric and founder of the raided Islamic center, remain in custody in Accra.

The detained party are said to be in possession of some evidential material that links them to terrorist groups in Burkina Faso and Mali. Meanwhile, residents in the community according to a Joy News reporter are terrified at the development given that the cleric has lived with them for some two decades. Commenting on the development, Alhaji Musa Barry, General Secretary of Fulani Welfare Group confirmed having gotten a hint of the raid and subsequently receiving confirmation via a call from a National Security official who invited him to a meeting on Saturday around 10 am. “I was only there to interpret their language, they are all Fulani, but they are not herdsmen, they are all students of that cleric.

So they were investigating about their mobiles, the communication and other things which help the National Security to interpret,” he said on the September 9 edition of Joy FM’s News Nite programme. In mid-June this year, Police in the Northern and Upper East regions were put on high alert following intelligence gathered about a possible terror attack. According to the intelligence, some bandits from Burkina Faso – known for their operations on Ghana, Burkina Faso border – are planning to launch attacks in the coming days. A police wireless message quoted by 3news.com read as follows: “Bandits suspected to be in possession of military-grade weapons may have already infiltrated Ghana at yet-to-be-identified locations in the northern regions and they are poised to launch the attacks any moment from now