Soldiers and State Security operatives engaged in a four and half-hour shootout Tuesday morning with suspected members of the Boko Haram sect in Kano leaving a man and his wife dead. Uzairu Abba Abdullahi, aged about 30 years and his wife, were the suspects killed in the gun battle at Hotoro Quarters Layin Makabarta in the Kano metropolis.

According to agency reports, the combined team of security operatives swooped on the house, suspected to be a Boko Haram safe house, shortly after midnight. However, rather than surrendering the occupants are said to have opened fire on the soldiers and SS operates setting off a shootout which lasted for about four and a half hours after which Abdullahi and his wife were shot dead.

"They came in large numbers, some of them stayed on the main road, while others came in through the alley. They began shooting, and he fired back... This was followed by a barrage of gunfire by the security men," a neighbour, Mohammed Maikubi Bala said.

Empty bullet shells lay strewn in a pool of blood just a few steps into the house. A cousin squatted near the blood. "I was called and told that my brother and his wife had been shot. He was a simple man known to be peaceful and as far as I know he has never been questioned by the security over any links with Boko Haram," the cousin, Shehu Idris, told AFP.

A car in the driveway was riddled with bullets and its windshield smashed. Relatives and a crowd of curious neighbours mingled outside before police came to search the house. It was not clear where the sound of explosions emanated from although a resident suggested there was use of heavy machine guns during the raid. "Everybody in the neighbourhood was in fear. We couldn't sleep," said a resident who lives a few houses away.

Residents had feared the city was under fresh attacks just days after coordinated gun-and-bomb attacks on Friday killed 185 people, more than two dozen of them policemen, in Boko Haram's deadliest ever operation.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch, believes attacks blamed on the Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed more than 935 people since the group launched a violent campaign in July 2009, including more than 250 this year alone.

The group urged authorities to put a stop to "this campaign of terror" and prosecute perpetrators of "these reprehensible crimes." "Boko Haram's attacks show a complete and utter disregard for human life," said Corinne Dufka, HRW's West Africa researcher.

Also on Tuesday, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, Enir of Kazaure, Alhaji Najib Hussaini Adamu, Emire of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Mohammed Sunusi and former governor of Kano State, who is also traditional title holder of Sarduanan Kano, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Tuesday visited the Murtala mohammed Hospital, Kano to greet victims of last Friday’s bomb blasts across the state.







culled from www.thisdayonline.com