Police in Borno State, Nigeria, have arrested 14 suspected Islamists linked to bomb attacks on a church and police stations that killed 14 people early this week in Maiduguri. Borno State police spokesman, Lawal Abdullahi confirmed the arrests late on Thursday and said on-going investigations would determine the level of complicity of the suspects in the attacks while the police are still on the lookout for other suspects. "We have made 14 arrests of suspected members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect in connection with Tuesday’s attacks," declared Abdullahi. Several bomb explosions and gunshots rocked the city on Tuesday in attacks suspected to have been staged by members of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for other attacks targeting soldiers and policemen, community and religious leaders as well as politicians. A pentecostal pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria was among those killed in Tuesday's blasts while a Catholic Church targeted in the attacks was badly shattered. The Tuesday blasts rocked the Borno fire service headquarters, Ramat Square parade ground and the central Dandal area of Maiduguri. The suspected Boko Haram members also attacked three police stations and hospital and sources said five bodies were brought in from one of them. "I am still receiving reports from the various divisions but I can confirm that Gwange and Dandal (police stations) have been attacked," Borno state police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi told Reuters on Tuesday after the attacks. Boko Haram sect launched an uprising a little less than two years ago, but it was brutally put down by security forces. Members of the radical group, which says it wants a wider application of sharia in Nigeria, has carried out daily attacks in and around Maiduguri in recent months. An unnamed influential cleric critical of the sect was shot dead as he left a mosque in Biu, some 200km south of Maiduguri, on Monday afternoon. A spokesman for the group also claimed responsibility on local radio last week for co-ordinated bombs that killed at least 16 people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in on May 29. The government and security agencies have made no public comment on who might have been behind the May 29 attacks beyond saying that investigations are underway. Speaking to reporters on the margins of an international HIV/AIDS conference in New York, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday said he would back local government initiatives to open a dialogue with the Islamists. Source: Thisdayonline.com