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How police boss was wounded in Kasese attacks
Commisioner Jacob Opolot (C) being helped by RPC Bob Kagarura (L) and the OC station Richard Anyait (R) after he was wounded in the attacks in Buhuhira Sub-county, Kasese District. Photo by Enid Ninsima
What you need to know:
Chaos. Mr Jacob Oplot was trying to quell the violence in Kasese.
Kasese. A senior police commander was on Friday wounded as the army moved in to beef up police in quelling what the authorities have reported as ethnic violence that broke out in the Rwenzori Mountain district of Kasese on Thursday night, following the post-election fallout.
Six people have since died in the violence, including two civilians shot on Friday by a man in military uniform, who was captured on video, in an operation led by the Police commissioner in charge of the Field Force Unit (FFU), Mr Jacob Opolot.
Commenting on the action by the solider who was videographed shooting at the civilian attackers, the UPDF Division 2 spokesman, Maj Ronald Kakurungu, told Sunday Monitor: “The soldier shot in self-defense after the attackers injured a policeman and a soldier. That they attempted to grab guns”.
According to the police commander for Rwenzori East Region, Mr Bob Kagarura, seven others have been injured since the clashes broke out on Thursday.
Mr Opolot and two others, including his bodyguard, were injured in the Friday crossfire, and are admitted to Kilembe Hospital.
“The commissioner [Opolot] has been injured and his guard and one police officer, Mr Mbusa, has been injured seriously. He is in a critical condition - he does not speak,” Mr Kagarura told Sunday Monitor.
According to the police and the military, on Thursday night, a group of more than 60 people armed with guns, spears and machetes, attacked and speared three Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) personnel who were on night foot patrols in Kikonzo village in Hima town council before the soldiers killed two of the attackers in retaliation.
The new attacks in the district followed protests in the local council elections in the area held earlier on Thursday.
Commissioner Opolot who rushed to Kasese on Thursday night to quell the escalating violence, was wounded in Kithoma trading centre, Buhuhira sub-county in Busongora North county. He was attacked with stones and machetes as he commanded his force in the field, backed up by the military that tried to end the riots.
Gun fire rocked the hilly Buhuhira Sub-county on Friday as police and army tried to quell the situation, that has animated the civilian population against the police and army.
The police claims that the civilian attackers are armed with diverse weapons.
Prior to the attack, there were protests in Hima that left some houses burnt to ashes.
