B92 News Region Region Bosnia: Police raid Wahhabi village 2 February 2010 | 12:34 -> 16:03 | Source: Beta BRČKO -- Police in Bosnia-Herzegovina this Tuesday blocked a village near the town of Brčko where Wahhabis reside. Bosnia's law enforcement and various other agencies officers detained more than ten Wahhabis, including women, and brought them in for questioning, reports said. A large cache of mostly hunting weapons were also found and confiscated in Gornja Maoča today. Police searched another location, in the Gornji Rahić area, also close to Brčko, seizing computers, cell phones and other equipment from the home of a Wahhabi there Earlier today, local media reported that police were looking for people who pose a threat to security and Bosnia's constitutional order. Wahhabis are members of a radical Islamist sect. Some 600 state and entity police and security agency officials blocked off the village of Gornja Maoča on Tuesday morning, which has the largest Wahhabi community in Bosnia. The police operation, dubbed Light, is described as the largest in the country since 1995. Bosnia's federal television reported that this is a large police action aimed at uncovering the identity of persons who represent a security threat to the country. It was stated that several buildings have been searched, in which large amounts of weapons were found. Bosnian media said earlier that the security services have put Gornja Maoča under special monitoring, with information received that activities that could endanger state security were observed in that village. Gornja Maoča is a completely isolated village where the laws of Bosnia-Herzegovina are not in effect. The village is organized according to Sharia law. The road that leads to Gornja Maoča is almost completely unpassable and all of the road signs pointing towards the village are in Arabic. Most of the homes there fly black Islamic flags, and the children study according to the education system of the country of Jordan, reports said.
Bosnia: Police raid Wahhabi village
2 February 2010 | 12:34 -> 16:03 | Source: Beta
BRČKO -- Police in Bosnia-Herzegovina this Tuesday blocked a village near the town of Brčko where Wahhabis reside.
Bosnia's law enforcement and various other agencies officers detained more than ten Wahhabis, including women, and brought them in for questioning, reports said.
A large cache of mostly hunting weapons were also found and confiscated in Gornja Maoča today.
Police searched another location, in the Gornji Rahić area, also close to Brčko, seizing computers, cell phones and other equipment from the home of a Wahhabi there
Earlier today, local media reported that police were looking for people who pose a threat to security and Bosnia's constitutional order.
Wahhabis are members of a radical Islamist sect.
Some 600 state and entity police and security agency officials blocked off the village of Gornja Maoča on Tuesday morning, which has the largest Wahhabi community in Bosnia.
The police operation, dubbed Light, is described as the largest in the country since 1995.
Bosnia's federal television reported that this is a large police action aimed at uncovering the identity of persons who represent a security threat to the country.
It was stated that several buildings have been searched, in which large amounts of weapons were found.
Bosnian media said earlier that the security services have put Gornja Maoča under special monitoring, with information received that activities that could endanger state security were observed in that village.
Gornja Maoča is a completely isolated village where the laws of Bosnia-Herzegovina are not in effect. The village is organized according to Sharia law.
The road that leads to Gornja Maoča is almost completely unpassable and all of the road signs pointing towards the village are in Arabic.
Most of the homes there fly black Islamic flags, and the children study according to the education system of the country of Jordan, reports said.
Some foreign Islamic fighters, or mujahideen, who stayed on after fighting alongside Bosnian Muslims against Serbs and Croats in the war, formed their own community in the village. They were joined by some local followers of the Wahhabi branch. ... About 20 families of the remote mountainous village live in accordance with sharia law and their children attend an Arabic-language school which operates outside the official education system. Most foreign fighters have left the Balkan country which is still an international protectorate. But many young Bosnian Muslims, particularly from rural areas, have in recent years adhered to the puritanical Sunni Muslim Wahhabi sect under the influence of Islamic foreigners.
