Hundreds killed in Nigerian military raid on Shiites; shrine, home bulldozed

Channi Anand/AP Activists accused Nigeria’s military of killing hundreds upon hundreds of Shiites in “a massacre” last weekend in a nearby town.

Nigerian armed forces clashed with the West African country’s most prominent Shiite Muslim sect over the weekend, killing upwards of 60 people and arresting the head of the group, who models himself after another well-known global Shiite leader – the late Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

According to the official accounts of the military, members of the Shiite group blocked the route of the army chief’s motorcade thus prompting a confrontation. His assertion didn’t explain how he got the knowledge.

“While we will not want to preempt the government and the Nigerian Army, we do however sue for peace”. “We hereby demand the location of the mass burial, and the interrogation of those who ordered the operation”. They claim they were attacked by the Nigerian army who killed hundreds in what has been called a massacre.

“It is essential that all sides refrain from actions that further destabilize the situation”, he said.

“While the final death toll is unclear, there is no doubt that there has been a substantial loss of life at the hands of the military”, said Amnesty Nigeria director MK Ibrahim.

Abdullahi Tumburkai, a Shia journalist, said he had counted more than 830 bodies in the mortuary in Zaria, the headquarters of the sect, called the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. His statement received Monday said, “The killing was so brutal at Gyallesu (one area of Zaria) that even those injured in the shooting were identified and killed in cold blood by the soldiers”. Numerous same sources claim that the army attacked a Shia procession that was blocking the movement of the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai’s motorcade; the military is claiming that the Shia threatened the motorcade and attacked a police station.

The Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani is reported to have held a telephone conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday over the violence involving the Shi’ia Islamic Movement and the Nigerian Army.

Two of Zakzaky’s sons were also killed and one was wounded, according to Musa.

This has raised concerns that the Nigerian military is acting unlawfully because no evidence demonstrates that Mr. Zakzaky’s rights are being preserved. The group re-emerged as a much more violent entity.

Though the two movements are enemies, there are disturbing parallels between the 2015 Zaria killings and the 2009 killing of Boko Haram members and the murder of its leader, Muhammed Yussuf, which led to its murderous radicalization. The IMN’s ties to Iran have resulted in the Islamic Republic condemning the actions of the Nigerian military and summoning the nation’s ambassador.

Some 15 members of the Shiite sect were killed in 2014 by a suicide bomber at a festival in Potiskum, Yobe state. Some 10,000 people have died in recent years there in attacks by the Boko Haram Islamist group.