Police issued a fresh terror alert on Wednesday, warning that terrorists have threatened to attack public places to revenge the death of al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.
The Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said on Wednesday that Uganda is on the top list of 20 other African countries, that the terrorists want to hit. He did not however reveal the other 19 countries on the list of the planned terrorist attacks.
During a meeting with Journalists in Kampala, Kaihura said that this time the terrorists are targeting supermarkets, taxi parks and traffic jams. He said that according to intelligence reports so far gathered, the terrorists have vowed to also avenge the death of Abdullah Fazul, a leader of the Somali based Al-Shabaab terrorist group, who was killed in June this year during an ambush in Mogadishu.
Fazul was the mastermind of the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
Osama bin Laden was the behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed thousands of America. He was killed in May this year after a decade of hiding away from the American intelligence.
Kayihura said he was going to start fresh inspections of public places including hotels, supermarkets, markets, to ensure that there is no laxity in as far as terrorism threats. He said he was worried that Ugandans were behaving as if they had forgotten the level of vigilance needed to keep safe from terrorism threats.
The IGP called on owners on such public places to emphasize physical body searches and deployment of dogs to detect bombs. He said that contrary to common thinking, the metal detectors alone cannot be completely efficient to detect modern bombs.
Kayihura has warned the public and owners of public places that terrorists are now planning to employ the use of plastic bombs which metal detectors cannot tell at entrances. He also said that another new approach by the terrorists include conducting surgery and placing explosives in the stomachs of suicide bombers to detonate at their targets.
He said there was need for more vigilance and openness by security people as well as private individuals. He called on the media to help mobilize Ugandans into better vigilance so that terrorism does not kill us again.
The al-shabaab terrorist group last year claimed responsibility for the terror attacks that killed over 76 people in Kampala.
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