Following a tip of a bomb threat in the area, joint security forces have detained a number of suspected terrorists in Nabweru, North Ward, Nansana Municipality, and Wakiso District.
Several security personnel, including members of various forces and the bomb squad, were there as our reporters arrived on the spot. Outside of their homes, locals had congregated in small groups out of worry for their safety.
Security personnel were looking into a possible terrorist group, according to Major Charles Kabona, the spokesperson for the UPDF’s first division.
They learned that a group of criminals was hiding out in an incomplete bungalow house on the Nabweru-Nansana Road, 200 meters from Kukye Nabweru, to prepare a bomb assault on a large city.
Six people, identified as Hamidu Ssekidde, Muhammad Kalyango, Abdul Katumba, Arafat Ssali, Emmanuel Assimwe, and Hamihud Muyonde, were reportedly suspected of building improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire.
Various supplies, including gasoline, dynamite, candle wicks, matchboxes, blasting caps, electronic detonators, and non-electric safety fuses, which they were using to make the IEDs, were discovered in their possession during the police operation.
Owoyesigyire listed six persons, but some investigators our reporter spoke to assert that more than nine people connected to the terrorist cell have been detained but have not yet been formally identified.
Residents who recognized her as the occupant of the home where the suspects were apprehended said she was one among the suspects seized. Her name is Hajjat.
“Hajjat is always there, I know that. That borehole is where she sells water. I don’t know the other guys,” a local who chose to withhold his name said. One of the suspects, according to a different woman who claimed to live nearby, was occasionally spotted by her.
She remarked, “I know that brown one, he has been coming here on a Boda boda,” as the troops escorted the suspects from the residence.
There were several chaotic events at the scene throughout the operation.
Security personnel attempted to flush out one of the suspects who had hid himself in the ceiling. Initially going undiscovered, according to Owoyesigyire, he was eventually found after urinating and officers at the crime site spotted pee flowing out of the roof.
A huge explosion was audible as police shot tear gas, which caused panic among the onlookers, including journalists, who fled the area for safety.
But a little while later, the suspect who had been hiding in the ceiling was found and taken to a drone vehicle that was parked nearby.
Security personnel retained their places, raised their weapons in the air, and prepared to respond to the unexpected sound when another boom, this time sounding like a bullet, was heard as the suspect was being put into the car.
This caused many to escape once more. One of the suspects, Hamihud Muyonde, was wounded in the foot during the operation, it was later revealed.
According to Luke Owoyesigyire, the event happened when one of the army officials disregarded protocol and unintentionally discharged his rifle, hitting the suspect and causing damage to the fuel tank of the car.
Owoyesigyire stated that in order to find out what went wrong, the police had opened a separate inquiry into the incident.
The injured suspect was afterwards moved to another military double cabin full of troops and supposedly sent to the hospital for treatment. He had been shackled with his arms behind his back.
The security personnel were still conducting searches of the home and questioning a number of people, including local council leaders, as of the time this story was filed.
Residents of Nansana Municipality’s Nabweru North Ward in the Wakiso District were urged to remain watchful and work with the security forces to protect their safety as the situation remained tense.
The suspects would be brought to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters for more questioning, according to Owoyesigyire.
Major Kabona added that there was currently no evidence connecting the individuals to any well-known terrorist organizations.
It should be recalled that the police detained a suspected suicide bomber after the bombings of Parliament Avenue and the Kampala Central Police Station in 2021, just after three of his coworkers had died in a double bombing.
One of the nearby villages to the location where these fresh arrests have been made, Katooke, is where the suspect was taken into custody.