A Muslim mob fought with police in Bauchi state, Nigeria, after a woman was accused of blaspheming Muhammed and/or desecrating the Koran.  At least one person is dead and five seriously injured.

"The youths stormed the police station and insisted on taking the law into their hands," Bauchi police-chief Adnan Tolman Gaya told IRIN, adding that police had taken the woman into custody on 2 February to protect her from the crowd.

The police shot live bullets at the crowd, killing a man in his early 20s. "My men were under threat and had no option but to shoot into the crowd in self-defence," Gaya said.

The mob responded by setting the police station afire and pillaging homes of local police officers and Christians.

In other news today from Nigeria, sharia police in Kano state (north-west of Bauchi) took it upon themselves to attack clubs, hotels, and other facilities in the Christian-majority area of the city of Kano.

The sharia police numbering about two hundred were seen at night patrolling in seven open vehicles that carried dangerous weapons including bows, arrows, sticks and cutlass. They attacked a civil service club at Magajin Rumfa Road, and all the hotels that are located in Sabon Gari, an area where most of its inhabitants are Christians.

The Sharia Police, otherwise called, Hisbah Police, earlier turned down summons by the Kano State Police Command, which had cautioned them about their unconstitutional activities. “We’re operating our duties based on law of the state, and shariah must be complied with by anyone residing in Kano” a top official of the Hisbah said following the police summons.

About 70 women were taken into custody as alleged prostitutes.

Violent clashes between Muslims and Cristians occur fairly regularly in northern Nigeria, where 12 states have adopted Islamic law.

In Kano state last October, at least nine Christians were killed and churches and homes destroyed in a week-long rampage that began for undetermined reasons.

About two years ago, a riot broke out in Bauchi state after a teacher confiscated a Qur’an that a pupil was reading in class.  Rumours soon spread that the teacher had desecrated the book.  Rioters armed with machetes killed at least 13 people.

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