Alshabab militants in Somalia arrest football club Boss
Dahabshil FC chairman, Abdulkadir Ali Barre second from right is pictured while participating in a conference for club chairmen in Mogadishu on Sep 23 2009 Photo By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
29.06.2010
By Shafi'i Mohyaddin AbokarAccording to the federation Mr. Barre was arrested late on Sunday in the southern outskirts of the capital while on his way to the Elasha-Biyaha village along the road linking Mogadishu to the town of Agoye about 30 kilometers south of the city. Afgoye witnessed the arrest of 31 fans earlier in the month.
The militants did not tell why he was arrested, but his wife said she was very shocked by his detention in a militant-controlled territory. “He left home a little while before midday, I didn’t receive any call from him for hours and when I called his phone, Al shabab militants told me he was jailed by them” Mr. Barre’s wife Sahra Mahmoud said in a telephone interview Monday.
“I could not control myself, as I was talking to the militants, my phone fell down on the ground and I got shocked—still I don’t know how I am” added Sahra a mother of four children.
She said that she didn’t slept all last night, thinking over where her husband’s fate will last be, since he fell into the hands of militants who mostly do not arrest, but kill people they catch.
“The told me that he was guilt, refusing to give details about the mistake he did” the nervous wife said during a telephone conversation on Monday. Militants term football a 'satanic act'
Late last year the same militant group, with ties to Osama Bin Laden’s Alqaeda Network detained and tortured another football club chairman and Coach Towfik Ismail who as accused of misguiding young boys from Islam. Towfik was training his young boys when he was snatched from a football stadium in the volatile northeastern part of the capital Mogadishu. Towfik was later released on bail.
Militants have termed football “A satanic act” against Islam and banned playing a ball or watching international games in areas under their control.
Since the start of FIFA world cup, Somali militants killed at least three people and arrested scores in different areas after they were accused of watching the current world football competition in south Africa, the first time that the world’s most populous sporting event is being held in Africa.