Tehran Summons Nigerian Diplomat Over Killing Of Shi’ite Muslims

Police opened fire Tuesday on unarmed Shiite Muslim protesters in the northern city of Kaduna, leaving three dead, the spokesman for Shiites in Nigeria said, as activists accused soldiers of having killed hundreds of Shiites in “a massacre” in a nearby town in recent days.

The Nigerian army clashed with the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and arrested its leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky in the northern city of Zaria over the weekend.

The violence began Saturday after members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) blocked a highway and according to witnesses stoned the convoy of Nigerian army chief General Tukur Buratai.

“I saw people shot being taken away by the Shiites as I was fleeing the area but I can’t say if they were dead”, she said.

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

Movement spokesman Ibrahim Musa said the military retaliated to the stoning incident with “indiscriminate killing”.

Usman said the two-page petition to the Nigerian rights agency was submitted today by the Chief of Administration of the Nigerian Army, Major General Adamu Abubakar.

“While this was going on, recall I said we had just seen off the president in company of the CP, I got a report from my commanders in Zaria of what was happening and of course, I started racing to the scene to find out exactly what was happening”.

Oyebade said both the army and the sect suffered casualties in the melee, adding that the casualty figure(s) were still collated.

“Considering the gross violation of fundamental human rights and extra-judicial killings perpetrated by the Nigerian Army, the Islamic Movement hereby condemns these unjustifiable acts”.

It was impossible to independently verify the toll as the military Monday continued a lockdown preventing access to three “husainiyya”, or spiritual centers.

Iran is the stronghold of Shi’a Muslim Faith. “Therefore, with all pointers at the government as the contractor of the killings, we hereby call on well-meaning Nigerians and the worldwide community to intervene and seek redress for the victims and their family members as many innocent people have unjustifiably been killed and many others severely injured”.

Nigeria’s military is infamous for its excesses.

Most of Nigeria’s tens of millions of Muslims are Sunni, including the home-grown Boko Haram Islamist militant group that has killed thousands in bombings and shootings since 2009, largely in northeastern Nigeria, .

Buratai, meanwhile, has personally stood by his military’s response to the attack, telling officials in a press conference that group members “were not only heavily armed but also violently confronted him and his convoy on his way to Zaria”.