Slain terror suspect vanished 3 years ago, family says
Terror suspect Hussein Said Omar who was shot dead by police in Bamburi, Mombasa on August 18, 2017. His family has now revealed that he vanished from home over three years ago. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Sister says they could not help in his search as they did not know his whereabouts.
- Omar alias Babli, had a Sh2 million bounty on his head.
- He was buried Saturday evening at Manyimbo Muslim Cemetery in Tudor.
The family of terror suspect Hussein Said Omar who was shot dead by police in Bamburi, Mombasa has now revealed that he vanished from home over three years ago.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Nation, Omar’s elder sister Aisha Omar said that they saw Omar on Friday last week when he was killed after he disappeared and cut contact with the family.
“I knew about his death on Facebook when people were posting about his death and then I started receiving calls on the same later. I was shocked when I received news of his death because we did not know of his whereabouts,” said Ms Omar.
Asked whether the family was in the know that their kin was a wanted terror suspect who was being hunted by police, Ms Omar said: “We only saw pictures circulating but we could not help because we did not know where he was and we did not know what he associating himself with.”
Added Ms Omar: “We would not want to go into details about his death. God knows better on what kind of a person he was.”
Items recovered from a house in Majengo, Mombasa linked to most wanted terror suspect Hussein Said Omar aka Babli and Ishmael Shosi. PHOTO | WACHIRA MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
SH2 MILLION BOUNTY
Omar alias Babli, who had a Sh2 million bounty on his head, was buried Saturday evening at Manyimbo Muslim Cemetery in Tudor.
Muslim prayer for the dead was conducted at Masjid Khayrat in Kiziwi, Tudor area, before the body was taken to the graveyard, a few metres from the mosque.
The body was removed from Coast General Hospital mortuary at around 4.30pm and taken to a small mosque within Manyimbo Muslim Cemetery where it was washed (Ghusl) before being wrapped with plain white cloth (Kafan) by his relatives.
HANDFUL AT BURIAL
Only a handful of relatives and friends attended the burial.
According to police reports, Babli had escaped their dragnets since 2015 together with his brother Ahmed Said Omar alias Dogo and are both suspected to be behind the 2014 Mpeketoni massacre.
Police sources said Dogo was hiding in the vast Boni Forest in Lamu operating under Jaysh Al Ayman which is believed to behind recent deadly attacks in the county.
The two brothers were first charged at a Malindi court with harbouring two Frenchmen and a Belgian who were charged with terrorism in 2013.
