Alwaght- Nigerian Police shot dead a 2-year old girl as well as 99 others in the latest round of violence against Shiite Muslims in the country.
A leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Sanusi Abdulkadir said police had opened fire on thousands of people without provocation and took away corpses from the hospital.
A two year old was shot dead amid the live firing of security forces against Shiite Muslims gathered for their religious mourning rituals of Arbaeen.
“They (police) began by throwing teargas canisters and minutes later started firing live bullets, injuring and killing several people”, Abdulkadir told reporters at the IMN headquarters in the city.
“It is difficult to give a tentative death toll because the information reaching us is scary,” Abdulkadir said.
Abdulkadir fears that police may have secretly buried the dead bodies allegedly taken from the hospital in a mass grave.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International accused Nigeria’s military of deliberately shooting dead more than 350 IMN protesters in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015, destroying evidence of the crime and dumping the bodies in mass graves.
“At this stage we’re seeing an excessive government clampdown on the IMN without there being clear evidence that it (the IMN) is going to react with an armed campaign,” Ryan Cummings, director at intelligence firm Signal Risk said.
The casualties were caused after soldiers fired live rounds and tear gas at mourners during a peaceful march held ahead of the upcoming Arbaeen mourning rituals, which mark 40 days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammand.
Witnesses said that they saw dozens of bodies sprawled on the ground before the Nigerian forces evacuated them.
Violence broke out when police tried to disperse thousands of people, including women and children, who were marching from Kano to Kaduna for the mourning rituals.
Nigerian forces claimed they opened fire on the crowd after one of their officers was hurt.
The latest deadly attack on the mourning march comes despite a letter by the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) that had called on the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the safety of the IMN followers during the Arbaeen commemorations.
Last month, at least 20 people were killed and several others injured when Nigerian forces opened fire at Muslim mourners commemorating Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein.
Followers of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria have been subjected to heavy-handed crackdown since last year when the army attacked a religious ceremony in their stronghold of Zaria in the north.
In December 2015, Nigerian forces raided the house of the IMN’s leader Sheikh Zakzaky and arrested him after killing those attempting to protect him, including one of the movement's senior leaders and its spokesman.
The Sheikh himself was shot seven times during the attacks and blinded in one eye and still remains in custody of the army.
The raid occurred a day after Nigerian soldiers attacked a group of Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in the city of Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission released a report, saying the Nigerian army killed 348 Muslims during the attack on the religious ceremony.
