JUST IN: Nigerian Army Clash With Shiite Muslims In Kaduna

Latest reports indicate that Nigerian soldiers and some members of a radical Islamic group exchanged gunfire in Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria Friday, 25 July, 2014.

According to residents in the area, the Nigerian soldiers battled for more than an hour with thousands of Shiite Muslims, leaving many injured.

Premium Times gathered from eyewitnesses that shootings started after the soldiers restricted the procession of the group, around the Sabon-gari area of the town.

Though details of the clash are still sketchy, but residents told newsmen that the gunfire that lasted about an hour.

One resident said he saw five bodies taken away from the scene of the shooting.

* Shiite Muslims

“I can’t really ascertain what happened, but I saw five unidentified corpse taken away from the scene,” the resident, a Shiite Muslim, said.

Another witness said the incident occurred when military personnel tried to force their way through the crowd of Shiite followers.

“Mahmood, one of Shiekh Ibrahim El-Zakzaki’s son is shot and the second son Ahmed was arrested and taken away by the security. Mahmood is however, not dead,” a witness, Musa Ali, said.

An attempt to get reaction from Nigerian military did not produce success as Defence spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, did not respond to calls to his phone.

However, the spokesperson for 1 Mechanized Division Nigeria Army, Usman Abdullahi, said he will give details later.

Zaria is the second major city in Kaduna State, and near the state capital, Kaduna, where twin bomb blasts killed more than 40 people on Wednesday.

The city is regarded as the spiritual centre of the radical Islamic groups in Nigeria.

However, it was gathered from another source that calm has since returned to the city.

Zaria is regarded as the spiritual headquarters of the radical Islamic congregation in Nigeria. After the tafsir of Ramadan, the Shiite in Zaria usually hold the Muzahara – a procession round the city in their thousands, dressed in black. 

 * A scene of bomb explosion in Kaduna

Zaria is the second major city in Kaduna State, and near the state capital, Kaduna.

It would be recalled that a twin bomb blasts killed more than 40 people on Wednesday, 23 July, 2014 in the same area.

The Islamists militant sect, Boko Haram, is touted to have masterminded the bomb blast.

The insurgents group has claimed responsibility for several such attacks in northern Nigeria and other parts of the country.

Boko Haram is said to have killed more than 4,000 people since 2009.

Source: Legit.ng