Sudan Mosque Gunman Said to Bear Grudge

A gunman who killed 20 worshipers in a mosque in Sudan had a long-standing grudge against their Islamic sect and had threatened its members, a police chief said Saturday.

Police shot dead the gunman, Abbas Baqer Abbas, after he walked up to the Sunna Mohammediyya mosque in the village of Garaffa on Friday evening and fired an automatic rifle through its window.

He killed 20 people and wounded 33 others, police spokesman Gen. Osman Yakoub Ali said.

Abbas belonged to a militant Islamic group, Takfir wal Hijra, Khartoum police Gen. Osman Gaafar said. Abbas had formerly belonged to Sunna Mohammediyya but had left because of religious differences, Gaafar said.

After he joined Takfir wal Hijra, which advocates isolation from the sinful world, Abbas repeatedly made violent threats against members of his former group. In 1998, police detained him for four months because of these threats. He was released after saying that he had repented, Gaafar said.

On Saturday, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir visited the mosque in Garaffa, a village north of Omdurman, the twin city of the capital, Khartoum.

Bashir paid his condolences to relatives of the victims and said legislation would be passed to control fanatical religious groups.

“Today, we vow to rectify laws in order to protect society from destructive and harmful ideas,” the president said in a short speech outside the mosque.

On Friday night, a crowd had gathered outside Omdurman University Hospital, where the wounded were admitted, demanding revenge against Takfir wal Hijra, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported.

Police spokesman Ali said Abbas appeared to have acted alone. “Up to now our investigations and assessment suggest that the attacker was one person,” he said.