Alwaght: It has been over a month now since the brutal massacre of over 1,000 members of the Islamic Movement In Nigeria and the illegal detention of the badly injured movement's leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zazaky and his wife.
The Nigerian army on December 12 and 14 carried out an unprecedented massacre of over 1,000 Muslims on the pretext that Muslims in Zaria stopped the convoy of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and attempting to assassinate him. The Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, and its leader Ibrahim Zakzaky strongly rejected the assassination accusation.
According to Human Rights Watch, “it is almost impossible to see how a roadblock by angry young men could justify the killings of hundreds of people. At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the group.”
During the past month the Nigeria army has attempted to cover up its atrocities by burying hundreds of Muslims in mass graves.
In a recent interviews, Ibrahim Musa the spokesman of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria said hundreds of dead bodies were transported from Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital, Shika and military hospital in Zaria to a discreet location in Kaduna.
He said the bodies were first burnt to ashes and then buried in mass grave in the ditch, adding that some members of movement who trailed the military trucks conveying the bodies to the cremation ground and mass grave, narrowly escaped death as troops opened fire on them.
Mr. Musa, who is also the editor of the movement's weekly newspaper, Al-Mizan, also said that about 40 members of the movement who sustained gunshot injuries were remanded in Kaduna Prisons and Barnawa Open Prison without medical attention. The whereabouts of many are still unknown.
The massacre and illegal incarceration of Nigeria's Islamic Movement members and leader was followed with the demolition of the movement's Center, Husainiyya Baqiyatullah, and the residence of Sheikh Zakzaky at Gyallesu, the cemetery and film Village at Dembo, Fudiyya Islamic Center and Grave yard of Shaikh Zakzaky's Mother at Jushi ward, Zaria. Since then, there has been continued genuine demands for the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Zakzaky, his family and other members of the movement.
Nigerians blame, President Muhammad Buhari a retired army general for refusing to take action against culprits of the massacre.
The National Supreme Council for Islamic affairs (NSCIA) met the Inspector General of police and demanded to see the Sheikh, he flatly refused. The force public relations officer Olabisi Kolawole, had said that Sheikh Zakzaky has been arraigned in court where he was charged with criminal conspiracy, inciting public disturbances among others adding that he has been remanded in prison custody and the case adjourned.Surprisingly while the Nigerian authorities had announced that he was detained and arraigned in Kaduna prison, the Controller Abubakar Argungu denied he was in their custody. This confirms the deceit, conspiracy and outright manipulation of the public’s view with regards to the army’s massacre in Zaria.
IMN spokesman Ibrahim Musa in a statement on Wednesday said Contrary to the statement credited to the Commander, 1 Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General AdeniyiOyebade, stating that the Army had handed over detained persons to civil authorities and that there is no one with them, we wish to state categorically that there are members of the Islamic Movement still in military detention facilities.
He also expressed concern following comments by some Saudi-Wahabbi scholars in various Nigerian media outlets commending the government for killing members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and directly praising Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari for fighting what they described as a “Jihad for them”.
Musa noted that the Nigerian government is aware of the activities of these Saudi-Wahabbi scholars on radio and television especially in Kaduna and the newspapers where it is directly described as using state machinery to fight jihad for the Sunnis against the minority Shi’ites of the Islamic Movement.
He pointed out that there is no such thing as a state religion in Nigeria and every Nigerian has the constitutional right to practice any religion of his choice and belong to any sect of his choice but contrary to this, a democratically elected government is being hailed for ‘doing jihad’ on behalf of some people.
Musa underscored that in as much as the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is a Movement for all irrespective of sect and religion with a majority Shiite membership, he expressed concerned about the sectarian sentiment being sponsored by the state with the intention of intimidating the members of the Movement.
The Islamic Movement official said it is the duty of the government to assure Nigerians that it is not involved in using state apparatus in launching attack on and segregating a part of the citizenry because they do not belong to their religious faith. This tragedy in Nigeria has once again badly exposed the double standards in 'fighting for human rights' among the Western countries and the United Nations.
The international community and the media have been so silent on massacre of over 1,000 Muslims in Nigeria. Yet again, unfortunately we see how human lives do not matter and it only matters when it is in Paris, or London, or New York where you have people being the victim of this sort of barbaric actions and the whole world has to light candles and cry but when it happens in Africa or Syria or Iraq or in Lebanon no one cares and this is the heart of the issue of what is happening with the human rights and across the world. Reliable reports indicate that US, Israeli ally, Saudi Arabia has been planning and pushing for the massacre in Nigeria for quite some time since June at last year.
