Abuja: At least 25 people were killed and more than 30 injured, when members of Islamic sect of Boko Haram threw bombs and fired shots into a beer garden in Nigeria's northern city of Maiduguri.
The two men who attacked the place known as Dala beer shops came on motorbikes and hurriedly escaped after the attack in the town which serves as the group s enclave and also the capital of Borno State.
Members of Joint Military/Police Taskforce (JMPT) arrived at the scene 30 minutes after but could not make any arrests.
"We received a distress call from the Bulunkuttu Divisional Police Officer (DPO) that the Dala beer shops were bombed by the suspected Islamist sect members riding a motorcycle", a policeman, Lawal Abdullahi told.
Abdullahi said the bodies of those killed were taken to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) mortuary and while the injured were shifted to the emergency units adding that police have sent their anti-bomb squads to the beer
shops.
Eyewitnesses say broken bottles were scattered alongside dead bodies and wounded persons at the beer garden immediately after the bombing which left residents scared.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a bomb blast 10 days ago outside the national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja. It is also believed to be behind a number of other attacks that killed more than a dozen people this month.
Boko Haram group seeks to install Islamic Sharia government in the oil rich African nation and also appears to be targeting beer drinking joints because the Islamic legal system forbids drinking of alcohol.
On May 29, the group carried out an attack which killed 13 persons and wounded some 30 others at a beer garden called Mami Market located near a military barracks in Bauchi state also in the north.
Nigeria's 150 million people are equally distributed amongst Muslims and Christians with each religion being predominant in the north and south respectively.
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