Nigerian police have claimed the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of an Islamic group Boko Haram while in detention. A police officer said Yusuf, blamed for violence that killed hundreds of people in northern Nigeria, was shot dead following his capture on Thursday."Come out witcher hands up, Mo!"
"Don't shoot! I quit!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Aaaiiieee! [THUD!]"
"He has been killed. You can come and see his body at the state police command headquarters," Isa Azare, spokesman for the police command in the northern city of Maiduguri, said.
The death announcement came after reports said that at least 180 people had been killed and thousands displaced following clashes between security forces and fighters from the group, which seeks to impose Islamic law across Africa's most populous country.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Borno state in northern Nigeria, said: "One cannot be a hundred per cent sure of what the police are saying about the capture and death of Mohammed Yusuf for two reason.
"One, the military and police are under sustained political pressure to root out Boko Haram. Two, on Wednesday we were told that Yusuf and at least 300 of his supporters fled Maiduguru as they were being pursued by Nigerian security forces. "What we have asked the Nigerian police force for is evidence that they have actually captured Mohammed Yusuf but we have not got it."
News of Yusuf's death came after the group's deputy leader was reported to be among dozens of people killed after troops shelled Boko Haram's base in the city of Maiduguri.
Bystanders 'killed'
A spokesman for a human rights group said government forces had killed bystanders and other civilians as they battled members of the sect. But a military spokesman denied the charge and said it was impossible for rights workers to differentiate between civilians and members of the Boko Haram.
Abubakar Umar Gada, a senator from Sokoto state in northern Nigeria, told Al Jazeera that security agents had been deployed heavily and the situation "is totally under control". He said Boko Haram had "taken advantage of the large number of people who are unemployed" and lacking opportunities to better their lives.
"We largely have a social problem that has been taken advantage of by these miscreants to cause havoc and confusion," Gada said.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is prohibited" in the local Hausa dialect, has called for the enforcement of sharia even among non-Muslims.
Nigeria's 140 million people are nearly evenly divided between Christians, who dominate the south, and the primarily northern-based Muslims. Islamic law was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of military rule.
The clashes began on Sunday in nearby Bauchi state, with fighters attacking police stations, before spilling over into Yobe. Residents said fighters armed with machetes, knives, bows and arrows and home-made explosives attacked police buildings and anyone resembling a police officer or government official in the city. But most of the casualties appear to have been in Maiduguri, the northeastern city known as the birthplace and stronghold of the group.