Abuja, 31 July-(ANA)-Human rights campaigners have voiced concern over the death of the leader of an Islamic sect in Nigerian police custody, calling it "unlawful" killing.
Nigerian government officials said Mohammed Yusuf, 39, was shot while trying to escape. His capture by police had been announced just hours earlier.
His group is blamed for days of unrest that has left hundreds of people dead.
The Boko Haram group wants to overthrow the Nigerian government and impose a strict version of Islamic law.
Mr Yusuf was held and later shot in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
His sect, Boko Haram, is against Western education. It believes Nigeria's government is being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria.
Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence.
The country's 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. (ANA)
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