Bartamaha(Mogadishu ):- The Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab militants in Somalia have arrested the Chairman of Dahabshil Football Club, Abdulkadir Ali Barre, the Somali Football Federation and his family members confirmed to APA on Monday.

According to the federation, Mr. Barre was arrested late on Sunday in the southern outskirts of the capital while on his way to the Elasha-Biyaha village along the road linking Mogadishu to the town of Agoye, about 30 kilometres south of the city, in which 31 soccer fans were arrested earlier in the month.

The militants did not say why he was arrested, but his wife said she was worried about his detention in a militant-controlled territory. “He left home a little while before midday, I did not receive any call from him for hours and when I called his telephone, Al Shabab militants told me that he was being held by them,” Mr. Barre’s wife Sahra Mahmoud told APA by telephone on Monday.

She said that she did not sleep the whole of last night, thinking about her husband’s fate, since he fell into the hands of militants.

“They told me that he was guilty, but refused to give details about what he did” the nervous wife said during a telephone conversation on Monday.

Late last year, the same militant group, with ties to Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, detained and tortured another football club chairman and coach, Towfik Ismail, accusing him of misguiding young boys from Islam. Towfik was training his young boys when he was snatched from a football stadium in the volatile north-eastern part of the capital Mogadishu. He was however later released on bail.

Militants have termed football “A satanic act” against Islam and banned playing or even watching international games in areas under their control.

Since the start of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Somali militants have killed at least three people and arrested scores in different areas after they were accused of watching football competitions, while the world’s most popular sporting event is being held in Africa for the first time.

Source:- APA

www.Bartamaha.Com

Nairobi-Kenya.

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