Nigerian Shia Muslims protest over military crackdown

{Shia Muslims are protesting in six northern Nigerian cities against a military crackdown they allege has left hundreds of their members dead.
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Many businesses have shut in Kaduna, one of the cities worst-affected by the demonstrations, a BBC reporter says.

On Monday, Shia-dominated Iran summoned a Nigerian diplomat in Tehran to protest against the crackdown.

Nigeria’s military accuses the pro-Iranian sect of trying to assassinate army chief Gen Tukur Buratai.

The sect, known as the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), denies the allegation.
The group wants to set up its version of an Islamic republic in Nigeria and has frequently clashed with the army.

Shias are a minority in Nigeria, where most Muslims belong to the rival Sunni sect.
On Sunday, government troops arrested IMN leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky after besieging his home in the northern city of Zaria.

The IMN alleges that the military killed hundreds of its members and destroyed a religious shrine and the home of Sheikh Zakzaky during the raid.

A leading human rights activist Chidi Odinkalu, has backed that figure and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct an independent investigation into what happened.

“It is not tolerable, Nigerians have the rights to live like citizens of any other nation,” he told the BBC.

“How can a professional military respond with guns to people protesting with stones,” Mr Odinkalu added.

The latest protests were triggered by a photo that went viral on social media, purportedly showing him sitting on the ground with a bloodied face.

The IMN has its headquarters in Kaduna, where security forces have taken up positions at strategic places as IMN members protest in the streets, says the the BBC’s Nura Muhammed Ringim in the city.

Some residents are staying in doors because they fear violence could erupt, he says.
The cities of Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara and Bauchi have also been hit by protests.

The world’s foremost Shia state, Iran, which backed IMN has officially protested to the Nigerian authorities.

A group of Iranians gathered in front of the UN office in the north-eastern religious city of Mashhad to demand international action into what is happening in Nigeria, Tehran-based Tasnim news agency reports.

The military has not given casualty figures, but has denied the IMN’s claim that the wife of Sheikh Zakzaky, Zeenat Ibrahim, was killed during the weekend clashes.
Maj Gen Oyebado, the army head of the Kaduna division, said on Monday that she was in the army’s custody.

He did not confirm or deny the death of the couple’s son, Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky.
Last year, three other sons of Sheikh Zakzaky were killed in clashes between the army and pilgrims in a religious procession.

Sunni Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram also staged an attack on a Shia procession, recently killing at least 21 people.

Boko Haram condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.

SOURCE:AL JAZEERA:[Nigerian Shia Muslims protest over military crackdown->http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35102204]