Borno state about the
beheadings.
"We killed 41 of them and
decapitated them and brought
the heads to Biu, which we
displayed to people to
demystify Boko Haram," he
said.
Hassan, said they and troops
ambushed Boko Haram
fighters as they prepared a
raid on Sabon Gari village in
the south of the state.
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said they were aware of the
reports and were
investigating the authenticity
of the claims.
Two Biu residents said the
vigilantes put the heads on
wooden spikes and drove
around the town, telling
people the Islamists did not
have magical powers.
"This is the latest in a string
of abuses in which progovernment vigilante groups
have been implicated," said
HRW's Nigeria researcher
Mausi Segun.
"It was like hunters
displaying their game after a
hunting expedition," said,
one, Silas Buba.
- Amputations -
A member of the civilian
vigilante group, Umar
Boko Haram took over the
town of Mubi in Adamawa
state last week and residents
who fled the town in recent
days said they had now
renamed it Maidanatul Islam,
or "City of Islam" in Arabic.
The incidents will add to
concerns of human rights
groups about the response of
the military and the
vigilantes, both of whom
have been accused of
atrocities in the past.
In Mubi, Boko Haram
chopped off the hands of 10
men accused of theft last
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