MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Islamists plan to do what many believe to be impossible in a country synonymous with anarchy — take the guns away from one of the world’s most heavily armed populations.

Abdullahi Maalim Ali, head of internal security for the Islamists that control the capital Mogadishu and most of south-central Somalia, said the Islamists will go door-to-door collecting weapons owned by ordinary Somalis and organisations.

“Plans are under way to disarm people living in Mogadishu and the rest of the country,” Ali told Reuters in a rare interview.

“This is aimed at improving security. It will be implemented slowly and in phases,” he said, standing outside his office in the former police headquarters flanked by nearly a dozen bodyguards armed with assault rifles and machine guns.

The movement is now trying to persuade weapons dealers who have made Mogadishu’s Bakara Market one of the world’s great arms bazaars to accept compensation when their caches of missiles and heavy weapons are seized and registered, he said.

Dealers in other open-air gun markets will be treated the same, he said.

Ali, known locally as Abu Utayba, is also in charge of public executions— the second of which the Islamists carried out on Friday when a firing squad executed a murderer.

“Peace will only come once someone knows if he commits murder then he will also be executed,” he said. “Muslims are policed by their souls, but the rest of the world is policed by ordinary policemen.

“We want to use both in Somalia since they are Muslims. That’s the only way to end anarchy here,” the 42-year-old businessman-turned-cleric said.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have died since Somalia succumbed to anarchy after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The Islamists, formed from a union of sharia courts, took Mogadishu from US-backed warlords in June.

Though some Somalis complain of the harshness of the Islamists’ rule, others credit them for bringing a semblance of order.—Reuters