Over 50 extremist religious group members arrested in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com – Over 50 members of the extremist religious “Naqshabandiya” group have been arrested in northern Iraq ’s oil-rich city of Kirkuk , under charges of mob acts during a demonstration in the city last Friday, a Kirkuk police director said.   “A Kirkuk Police force had arrested more than 50 members of the Naqshabandiya group in Hawija township, some 65 kms to the southwest of Kirkuk since Friday’s demonstration,” Brigadier Sarhad Qader told IraqiNews.com news agency, saying that 3 of the detainees carried (non-Iraqi) Arab identities. Noteworthy is that clashes that took place during Kirkuk’s Friday demonstration between demonstrators and police forces had caused the killing of 2 persons and wounding 51 others, including 22 in Hawija, among them 5 policemen and 6 in Suleiman-Beg, some 80 kms to the south of Kirkuk.   The clashes during the demonstration took place when the demonstrators broke through Kirkuk Province ’s Council building, causing the injury of 23 policemen and a reporter of Kurdistan People’s TV Channel.   Kirkuk is 280 kms to the northeast of Baghdad .   IT / SKH 638