A police station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has been attacked by suspected members of the radical Boko Haram Islamic sect, media reports citing local officials and witnesses said Monday.
Witnesses were quoted as saying that a powerful explosion was heard from the police station in the Sharada industrial area of Kano. There were also reports of gunfire sounds heard from the area for more than an hour.
It is not clear whether any Nigerian security personnel or militants were killed in the explosion and the ensuing exchange of fire. The Nigerian government is yet to make an official statement.
Nevertheless, witnesses said attackers fled the area after facing stiff resistance from the security personnel inside the targeted police station. The officers from the Joint Security Taskforce were also inside the station when it was attacked.
The Boko Haram Islamic sect, based in the mainly Muslim north, campaigns against Western education, which it considers as against Islamic teachings. The sect wants the enforcement of strict Islamic law in Nigeria after overthrowing the current government.
The sect came into prominence in July 2009, when hundreds of its members were killed in fighting with Nigerian security forces in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri. An estimated 1,000 people have been killed since the terror outfit began its campaign of violence in 2009.
Last month, the sect had claimed responsibility for a series of bomb blasts that killed at least 185 people in Kano. Later that month, Nigerian authorities announced the arrest of 158 suspected Boko Haram members in raids carried out in Kano. The group, however, responded by attacking a couple of police stations in Kano, killing at least three people and injuring many more.
The sect had also carried out a series of bomb attacks on churches across Nigeria on Christmas Day, killing at least 42 people. The main suspect in that bombings, a Boko commander named Kabiru Sokoto was arrested earlier this month, but he later managed to escape from police custody while being taken to a police station near the capital Abuja.
In retaliation to the Christmas Day attacks, unidentified assailants set fire to a mosque and an Islamic school in the southern Nigerian city of Benin, raising fears that continued attacks on Christian and Muslim religious sites could lead to full-fledged sectarian clashes across the country. The northern regions of Nigeria are predominantly Muslim and the South is dominated by Christians.
Prior to the Christmas Day bombings, Boko carried out several attacks on Nigerian security personnel and religious leaders who were opposed to its ideology. The sect had earlier claimed responsibility for the deadly car bomb attack on the U.N. building in Abuja on August 26, which left 23 people dead and more than 80 wounded.
Late last month, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sacked police chief Hafiz Ringim and six of his deputies over their failure to contain the violence being unleashed by Boko Harm. The president's office said in a statement that the move was the "first step towards the comprehensive reorganization and repositioning of the Nigeria Police Force."
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