Bandits kill Several People in Katsina.

James Danjuma

Gunmen suspected to be bandits have killed at least seven persons and abducted five women in attacks on two communities in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State.

This is even as some residents of the state have Wednesday taken to the streets to protest incessant killings, abductions and rustling by suspected bandits and related criminals in the state.

Both attacks, which occurred Tuesday night at about 9pm, happened at Kanon Haki community, and the other at Unguwar Ibrahim Maiwada community.

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According to sources, five people were killed at Kanon Haki while several others sustained injuries.

It was confirmed that two people lost their lives, while five women were abducted at Unguwar Ibrahim Maiwada community.

One of the sources, however, said that the number of those who died may have risen to 12 because six vigilante members were also feared killed while trying to confront the bandits.

In a related development, dozens of protesters yesterday blocked the Funtua-Sheme road to protest incessant killings, abductions and rustling by suspected bandits and related criminals in the state.

The protesters, displayed placards and chanted slogans that decried the security situation facing their communities and state in general.

The protest, it was learnt, had commenced Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday morning, and had disrupted smooth flow of traffic for hours.

Mostly affected by the protest were commuters plying the road on their way to neighboring Zamfara state and Kaduna state.

Some of the commuters were said to have slept at the area as they could not continue with their journey, nor go back from where they came from.

The protesters, it was learnt, were later dispersed by a team of policemen that were ostensibly deployed to check the situation from escalating.

The state, like most in the northwest, is faced by security challenges brought about by activities of bandits, rustlers, kidnappers, and related criminals.

Hundreds of people have lost their lives in recent months, while more have been kidnapped, maimed, or had their animals rustled by suspected bandits.

The security situation had in September led to the blocking of telecommunication networks by government in 17 council areas of the state, to allow for extensive security operations in the affected areas.

But the telecommunication network blockage was recently lifted after the state government announced that some level of security normalcy had returned to affected communities.

Efforts to reach spokesperson for the police command in the state, SP Gambo Isah for comments on both issues were unsuccessful as he was yet to respond to calls and text messages to his mobile phone.