Seven dead in suicide attack in Nigeria mosque
Abuja, July 23 : Seven people were killed and seven others injured following a suicide attack in a mosque in Nigeria's Borno state on Monday, officials said.
The injured have been evacuated to a hospital in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, Xinhua quoted Bello Dambatta, head of rescue operations at the State Emergency Management Agency, as saying.
The remains of the male suicide attacker, who caused the havoc, were among those evacuated from the scene.
The attacker entered the mosque during the morning prayer, pretending to be a worshipper, before detonating the improvised explosive device strapped to his back, said Dambatta.
"It is not clear how the suicide bomber infiltrated the town and attacked the mosque," said Ali Kolo, head of a local vigilante group in Konduga.
He said the building collapsed during the explosion and the victims were evacuated from the rubble.
Yunusa Bello, a resident who witnessed the blast, said all the victims were worshippers at the mosque.
Bello said he saw bodies of seven of the victims who died inside the mosque while two bodies were found at the entrance of the building.
"One died on the way to the hospital and one other died at the hospital," he said after assisting victims to the hospital in his van.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but locals suspect the Nigeria-based armed group Boko Haram was to blame.
Despite the efforts by the government and the armed forces to destabilize the group, Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets recently, mostly in the northeast region of the country.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
