Muslim passengers on a Kenyan bus boarded by terrorists this week protected Christian passengers by refusing to separate into groups by religion, avoiding bloodshed like that which occurred in 2014 when Al-Shabaab militants killed 28 people.
The Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper, reported that suspected members of Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida affiliate, stopped the bus Monday, boarded it, and attempting to separate the 62 passengers by religion. Two people were killed and three injured.
In the previous attack in November 2014 near Nairobi, Al-Shabaab terrorists stopped a bus and separated the passengers into
Muslim and non-Muslim, The Guardian reported. They shot and killed the 28 non-Muslim passengers who were unable to say a Muslim creed, many of them teachers.
Deputy County Commissioner Julius Otieno said the militants boarded and forced the passengers out of the bus on Monday, and then tried to separate them by religion, telling those who weren't Christian to get back on the bus.
Gov. Ali Roba told the Nation the passengers refused the terrorist's demands.
"They refused to separate from non Muslims and told the attackers to kill all passengers or leave. That is why some locals were injured trying to protect non-Muslim passengers," Roba told the Nation.
A teacher who was hurt in the attack told the BBC that Muslims on the bus gave their hijabs to non-Muslim women.
"[The militants] told us 'if you are a Muslim you are safe.' There were some people who were not Muslim. They hid their heads. They hid themselves in the group," the person said. "Then some Muslim women on the bus gave their hijabs to the non-Muslim women. The women then looked like Muslims so they could not be identified."
Abdirashid Adan, a survivor of Monday's attack, told the Kenyan newspaper that the killers stopped what they were doing when they heard a vehicle approach, apparently thinking it was the police. When it turned out to be a lorry, they stopped that vehicle also.
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