Alwaght- Nigerian troops have killed four members of the persecuted Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) during the annual Arbaeen procession in the country’s north.
According to INM officials the attack took place on Sunday, when the IMN members were peacefully marking the annual Arba’een mourning rituals in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
The statement added, that, “Heavily armed Nigerian Police security personnel open fire at peaceful Arba'een Symbolic trekkers in Kono zone of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
The Arba'een trekkers in millions all faithful disciples of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, were repelled at the outskirt of the city of Kano.”
Local residents and witnesses said that Nigerian police began firing tear gas followed by live bullets as mourners and the supporters of the Shia Muslim group were marching from Kano to the city of Zaria in neighboring Kaduna State, where their detained leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, has his headquarters.
Tensions between the Nigerian government and Shiite Muslims broke out in December 2015 in the city of Zaria in Kaduna state when the army killed over 1,000 innocent Muslims. During the incident, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria leader Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife were shot and badly wounded and thereafter detained by Nigerian security agencies. They are still being held incommunicado by security forces with their health rapidly deteriorating.
The massacre and continued persecution of Shiite Muslims continues amid a deafening silence by the UN which has ignored the crimes committed by the Nigerian regime against Muslims in the West African state.
The first ten days of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, mark the martyrdom of the third Shiite Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad SAW, Imam Hussein AS, in 680 AD in a battle with the tyrant of the time. The tenth day of Muharram, known as Ashura, marks the day when Imam Hussein was martyred with 72 of his loyal companions. The historic event's message of resistance and rising up against tyranny has been key to the evolution of a culture which rejects abjection at any rate.
