Police arrest 42 members of Senegal religious sect

DAKAR, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Police have arrested more than 40 members of a Muslim religious sect who stormed a police station in central Senegal to free two colleagues held there, authorities said on Saturday.

A security official, who asked not to be identified, said the 42 people detained were disciples of Senegal’s powerful Muslim Mouride brotherhood who call themselves Baye Fall and wear colourful, patched clothes and their hair in dreadlocks.

A group of Baye Fall members, followers of local Islamic spiritual leader, or “marabout”, Serigne Modou Kara Mbacke, burst into the police station at Darou Mousti, 150 km (90 miles) east of Dakar, late on Wednesday and freed two fellow members being held there.

Police responded by rounding up 42 followers of Kara suspected of having taken part in the assault. They were being held in a prison at Louga in northern Senegal.

“They’ve been arrested for disturbing public order,” the official told Reuters. He denied media reports that the crowd had looted the police station.

The official did not say why the two were being held at the police station.

Baye Fall members are a common sight on the streets of Dakar and other Senegalese cities, where they often beg for alms.

More than 90 percent of Senegal’s population are Muslims, organised into influential brotherhoods who practise a moderate, tolerant version of Sufi Islam and often intervene to prevent disputes in the community.

Religious violence is rare in Senegal, which became independent from France in 1960 and prides itself on its political and social stability in a turbulent West African region which has seen a host of conflicts.

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