Al-Shabaab militias flog couple for secret marriage also Two killed by roadside bomb in Somalia’s Puntland

Newly-trained al-Shabaab militias at Maslah camp in North Mogadishu on September 5, 2010. The Islamist militant group has issued a three-month notice to companies to cease mobile money transfer operations in Somalia. Photo/FILE  |

By ABDULKADIR KHALIF in Mogadishu  (email the author)

Posted Thursday, December 9 2010 at 10:38

Militias loyal to Somali radicals al-Shabaab whipped a couple Wednesday for engaging in a secret marriage.

The punishment was meted out at a town square in Beledweyne, 335km north of Mogadishu, in the presence of hundreds of people. 

Al-Shabaab is the most radical Islamist group opposing the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

According to the district judge of the al-Shabaab court, the young man was sentenced to 15 lashes while the bride received 10.

The judge also stated that the sheikh who conducted the secret marriage, was sentenced to receive 35 lashes. He reiterated the Islamist movement’s determination to fight secret marriages, locally known as masaafo or khudba-sireed.

Fall in love

The judge also stated that al-Shabaab militia will pursue people who continue to have secret marriages. Other al-Shabaab officials who spoke at the scene, informed the public that they apprehended the young couple whose age was not made public and the sheikh who conducted the secret marriage days earlier.

In Somalia, it is common practice that youngsters who fall in love but fear that their parents may reject their engagements travel to another place, over 90 km away from the parents’ residential areas, to tie the knot in a private ceremony made official by a sheikh.

Somalia’s moderate Islamist indicate that secret marriage may not be desirable, but never considered illegitima    H/T  calanka

Two killed by roadside bomb in Somalia’s Puntland

Bosaso, Puntland, Somalia (AHN) - At least two people including a police officer were killed and several others wounded in the explosion of a roadside bomb in Puntland’s commercial town of Bosaso, witnesses said Thursday.
Bosaso police chief Hussein Ali Dheere and his driver were killed in the blast, according to police sources.
The explosion, which could be heard throughout the neighborhood of New Bosaso, had targeted a convoy of Puntland police.
Witnesses said the number of soldiers wounded in the blast remained unconfirmed.
Initial reports suggest that about 10 people were detained in connection with the attack.
The incident comes less than 24 hours after Puntland’s security forces foiled an overnight assassination attempt against a civil servant. Two men armed with pistols shot and wounded a driver working for Puntland’s ministry of finance. AHL

Somalia Al-Shabaab rebels publicly whip couple for secret marriage