A 28-year-old man who was suspected of planning a bomb attack on a church has been detained by Police in Uganda.
Uganda Police reported on Sunday that Ibrahim Kintu was caught entering a Miracle Centre Pentecostal church in the Lubaga suburb of south Kampala with an explosive device he planned to use for an attack there.
“We have carried out a controlled detonation of the improvised explosive device which was made of nails, a motorcycle battery, a charger, and a telephone handset which was to be used in the attack,” police spokesman Patrick Onyango told reporters outside the cathedral.
Authorities were hunting three other men also believed to have been sent on similar bombing missions elsewhere in Uganda when Ibrahim Kintu, revealed that he may have had accomplices.
The reasons behind the strikes were unknown, although the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has ties to the Islamic State (IS) had carried out devastating bombings in Uganda in the past.
ADF was originally a Ugandan rebel group but was routed more than two decades ago and fled into the jungles of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where it has since been based.
Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told journalists security personnel had picked up intelligence about attacks planned on places of worship and that they had tracked Ibrahim.
“We got information that one terrorist had already been sent out to go and carry out a mission, so they followed the terrorist,” he said.
Onyango said the suspect had a bag with an improvised explosive device which police detonated safely. During interrogation, Onyango said, he confessed he had three accomplices who had also been sent to carry out similar attacks.
“He’s helping us locate those people,” Onyango said, adding that the suspect was being held on terrorism-related charges.
Speaking about the incident, the church’s high-profile pastor, Robert Kayanja, told AFP that “the lord has saved us from deaths”.