Amnesty International is demanding an urgent investigation. In the course of security operations against Boko Haram, Nigerian military forces have committed serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity in north east Nigeria.
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He has long campaigned for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution in Nigeria, and has found a ready audience for his message in a country long-plagued by corrupt and incompetent officialdom. Is the crackdown by the army legal or is this a case of extrajudicial killing?
The army alleged members of the sect tried to kill the chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai.
Mr Musa was the guest of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television where he relayed what transpired on Saturday, December 12, between members of the sect and soldiers which initially led to the killing of seven persons. Shia spokespersons later claimed that the attack had been masterminded by the army. The Times quoted Abdullahi Tumburkai, a journalist, as saying he had counted more than 830 bodies in a local mortuary. He also said Zakzaky’s home was destroyed.
The group also slammed what it called the history of extrajudicial killings by Nigerian security agencies, including the army, and urged for granting victims access to lawyers and giving medical care to the injured.
“On Monday, Nigerian troops arrested the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, after committing a massacre against people attending a religious ceremony in Hussainiyyah Baqeeyatullah in the northern city of Zaria”. Social media is carrying pictures of him bloodied.
An army spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, said that Zakzaky and his wife and son were being held in protective custody – not killed, as rumours circulating online had reported.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Media Department, the ministry expressed its deep concerns about the tragedy in Nigeria. While his claim to be able to bring “millions” of followers onto the streets seems wide of the mark, he does command a hardcore of disciples who have allegedly received paramilitary training. The Shia presence in Nigeria appears to have been established by Iranian missionaries and to receive funding from Iran.
There is a long history of clashes between the Nigerian armed forces and the IMN.
Iran has complained to Nigeria over an army raid on the headquarters of a militant pro-Iranian cleric in which hundreds of people are now feared to have died.
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.
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The IMN is not connected to Boko Haram, the Islamist radical sect blamed for more than 10,000 deaths in Nigeria over the past six years.
