LAGOS , Nigeria ( CNN ) -- More than 400 people have been killed in a spate of violence in northern Nigeria , the president of a human rights group said Tuesday . More than 150 alleged militants were arrested by Nigerian police after clashes . The violence has pitted Islamic militants against government police and troops in the north-central part of the nation , officials said . Attacks continued Tuesday in the suburbs of the northern city of Maiduguri , said Shehu Sani , president of the Civil Rights Congress , a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria . People there are seeking refuge in police and military barracks and in hospitals , he said . Police and troops were dispatched to the militants ' hideouts after they began attacks on government establishments Sunday , said police spokesman Moses Anegbode . As authorities exchanged fire with the militants , 41 people , including a soldier and a policeman , were killed , Anegbode said Monday . In addition , some 176 people were arrested in Bauchi , he said . Besides Bauchi , militants also staged attacks on the nearby states of Yobe and Borno on Sunday and Monday , said Emmanuel Ojukwu , spokesman for the national police . Yobe 's police commissioner , Alhaji Muhammed Abbas , said that 23 suspected militants were arrested in connection with a bomb attack at a police station in Potiskum that killed a policeman and a civilian and wounded seven people . The official News Agency of Nigeria reported that as many as 100 members of a religious sect led by Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf may have been killed in a confrontation with police . In Borno , police spokesman Isa Azare said that two policemen were killed in an attack on police headquarters late Monday . `` The religious fanatics took the police unawares , '' Azare told the government-affiliated New Nigerian newspaper . `` That was why they succeeded in killing all the officers on night duty . '' Panicked residents stayed inside in all three states , and businesses shut down , even though officials said the situation was under control . The militants used guns , bows and arrows and machetes in the attacks , officials said . The militants disagree with the government 's teaching of Islam in the region , maintaining that the government allows itself to be influenced by Western values , and have been attacking government offices and Islamic clergy . There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria , where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa . Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001 . The human rights organization alleged last week that police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year . Most of the victims were young Muslim men , often unarmed , the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report . More than 700 people died in the violence , the organization said , citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide . CNN 's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report .
As many as 300 were killed in Nigerian schools , police reported . Militants disagree with the government 's teaching of Islam . 176 people also arrested , according to police .