Shiite Leaders Accuse Nigeria Police of Killing 1000 Muslims

Mr. Sani said in a statement on Tuesday that the attack was nothing but “indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force by the military”.

THERE was palpable tension in Kaduna yesterday, following a clash between the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), popularly known as Shi’ite, and security operatives in Tudun Wada area of the metropolis. IMN leaders maintain that they are a peaceful group and did not attack Buratai.

Dozens of Shia Muslims have been killed and community centers demolished since Saturday, when Shia protesters barricaded the road to the army’s chief of staff in a move the military later said was an attempt to assassinate Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai. The organisation’s headquarters and the home of its leader were destroyed in the process.

Chidi Odinkalu from the Nigerian Human Rights Commission described the last few days as “a massacre”.

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

The minister also had a closed-door meeting with Governor Nasir el-Rufai on the development before he went to Zaria to ascertain what really transpired between the sect and soldiers.

The Chief Medical Director of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, Lawal Khalid, said the hospital’s mortuary had received 61 bodies from the ongoing turmoil.

The leader of the Shia movement and his wife, who earlier the Islamic Movement claimed had been killed in an attack in the northern city of Zaria on December 13, are under protective custody, General Adeniyi Oyebade told reporters on Monday. Iranian propaganda outfits have also begun to attack the Nigerian government of a supposed bias against Shiite Muslims.

“We should not let minor differences grow into deep-seated conflicts and differences”, Rouhani said, adding that the Muslim world now needs to settle issues peacefully.

Iran’s parliament on Tuesday called on the Nigerian president to launch an investigation into the deaths, while the foreign ministry summoned the top Nigerian diplomat to protest the killings.

Nigeria’s Shiites, a movement of millions started 37 years ago by Zakzaky, who dresses in the robes and turban of an Iranian ayatollah, often have clashed with police and other security forces over their unlawful blocking of major roads to hold religious processions. Nigerian troops are accused of killing thousands of detainees by shooting, torture, starvation and suffocation in its prosecution of a war against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram, a Salafist group, claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to “wipe out” the Shiites opposed to its radical vision of Islam. The group re-emerged as a much more violent entity.