Police have suspended a team of officers who took part in an operation at Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga's home earlier this month, in which dozens of young adults were rescued.
The officers are also scheduled to appear before the police disciplinary court to answer torture charges after a video clip went viral showing them assaulting, kicking, and gun butting some of the victims they went to rescue from the illegal rehabilitation centre.
Addressing the press on Monday, police spokesperson Fred Enanga stated that while security operatives faced some resistance from the scene, including stones thrown at them, such a response was unnecessary, causing public outrage.
He said that although the police officers had a right to break into the premises, the challenge is that they did not express the right attitude that the force and public expected of them.
Enanga was also responding to the Uganda Muslim Lawyers Association (UNLA), led by Ali Kankaka, which has accused the law enforcement body of carrying out targeted operations against Muslims, stating that such security operations are not intended for specific individuals based on religion, but rather for the overall security and safety of the country.
"Police officers responded to calls by parents who reported their children have been missing and were traced to the said rehabilitation centre in Tula Kawempe," he said.
Enanga further challenged, the lawyers to bring out all the facts and details about the alleged rehabilitation centre including the consent forms from the parents of the victims who were rescued from the premises.
"We are handling a matter where children were victimized. It is not that it is we who initiated the complaints," he added.
Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said that although police at Kawempe invited Sheikh Kamoga to make a statement indicating circumstances under which the rehabilitation was created and whether they have a license, he has defied the summons.
It is said that the said rehabilitation centre has been mobilizing children and young adults from across the country while others came from Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
