Two policemen shot dead as gunmen attack Busiika police post
A file photo of a man holding a gun.
What you need to know:
- The Resident District Commissioner, Mr Richard Bwabye, who chairs the district security committee, said the assailants struck at around 7:30pm.
Unknown gunmen on Monday evening killed the officer-in-charge (OC) of investigations alongside a police constable and injured another in an attack on Busiika Police Post in Luweero District.
The Resident District Commissioner, Mr Richard Bwabye, who chairs the district security committee, said the assailants struck at around 7:30pm.
“I have received the sad news about the murder of two police officers at Busiika. We are yet to ascertain the cause and who the suspected assailants are,” he said.
The deceased were posthumously identified as Inspector of Police Moses Wagaluka, the OC CID, and police constable Alex Ongolo.
Mr Stephen Andama, another police constable, survived with bullet injuries and was reportedly taken to Bombo Military Hospital.
Witnesses said the attackers torched police files and fled with two guns grabbed from their victims.
Mr Richard Nyombi, the mayor of Busiika Town Council, said the suspects ordered owners of shops near the police post to close their businesses and head home before they opened fire.
They set several police case files and official documents alight before escaping.
Some witnesses estimated the assailants numbered eight, and said they took the direction of Nakifuma, Kayunga District, as they fled.
Their identities remain unknown. It wasn’t clear whether the killers took anything from their victims or not.
Scene of crime last night raced to secure the scene from being tampered with by curious onlookers and operatives from other security agencies joined police as the hunt for the assailants and expected investigations got underway.
According to gory photographs shared on social media, the officers were killed inside the post.
One of the deceased officers wore civilian attire while the uniformed victim appeared to have been shot in the head.
This is the second attack targeting police officers in Luweero in three months.
In July, thugs armed with machetes attacked a traffic police check-point in the district and hacked police constable Ronald Busingye to death.
Another constable Josephat Twinamasiko survived with serious injuries. The thugs also burnt the vehicles at the sentry. President Museveni vowed to catch the killers, who to-date have eluded capture and justice. Days later, a similar attack attempted on traffic police in Bugisu Sub-region was repulsed.
Attacks on police or their facilities in central region are on the increase. More than seven incidents against police officers have been reported in less than a year. Between November and December last year, assailants raided police stations and killed four police officers in Mityana and Kiboga districts.
Corporal Alfred Oketch, police constable Moses Kigongo, Cpl Francis Nsubuga and special police constable Paul Ddimba were killed in attacks on police stations.
The method employed by attackers in Mityana and Kiboga districts appeared to bear some similarity with yesterday raid on Busiika Police Post.
In both instances, they ordered nearby shop owners to close businesses and vanish quickly away killing their victims in what a police investigator said suggested the assailants want nobody to take a good look at them, which would aid their future identification.
In the past attacks, security agencies later arrested 15 people and charged them with terrorism in the army General Court Martial.
The accused are Stuart Lugendo Savio Paul, Julius Mulinda, Muhammad Nyanzi Moshi Makumbi, a one Kizito alias commander muto, Godfrey Agodri alias Walker Ramathan, Paul Iyamuremye, Alex Bogere, Bob Robert Ssenyonga, John Masembe, Faizo Miti, Hakim Ssenyonjo, Sylvester Matovu, Derick Kavuma, Tonny Ssekayombya and Sam Ssengonzi Lwanga.
They were charged with four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of treason. The prosecution alleged that they committed the offences on or around December 7 and 16, 2011.
Prosecution also alleges that the suspects were found in unlawful possession of two hand grenades which are ammunitions and a monopoly of the defence forces contrary to section 3(1) (2) (a) of the Firearms Act.
The suspects were accused of being agents of a new rebel group, Uganda National Coalition for Change (UNCC).
Security agencies afterwards recovered the guns stolen in the raids in Mityana and Kiboga districts.
The raids targeting police officers had prompted heightened surveillance and crackdown on criminal gangs in central region.
In June, the army arrested three people in Luweero on accusations of being Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.
The Defence ministry spokesperson, Brig Felix Kulayigye, said the suspects were training and planning terror attacks in the district.
The narrative of terror cells and planned attacks feeds into previous cases of unknown people throwing explosives in local leisure hotspots in the city before two main bomb explosions targeting the Central Police Station in Kampala and passersby on Parliamentary Avenue.
The suicide attacks prompted Uganda to deploy its army, the UPDF, to launch a counter-offensive against ADF in their lairs in eastern DR Congo.
In less than year, at least eight people are known to have died in what the government has called “terrorist attacks”.
