Nigerian Forces Destroy More Shia Religious Centers
"A combined team of security and Kaduna State government personnel demolished the Fudiyya Islamic School at Zaria and the Husainiyya in Saminaka,” the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) said in a statement on Friday.
The Fudiyya Islamic School in Zaria is a registered educational facility of the IMN with nursery, primary and secondary sections with hundreds of pupils studying there.
"The Husainiyya in Saminaka was under construction when the Wahhabis lured the KDSG to stop the construction. The government used state resources and filed a case before the court and a court order was issued for the construction to be stopped which the IMN complied with.
"The KDSG never issued any notice before this demolition. They didn't also show any court order authorizing them to that effect. They simply came with bulldozers along with heavily armed security personnel and commenced the demolition of the Islamic center.
"In the process of demolishing the Fudiyya School in Zaria they shattered the tomb of late Alhaji Hamid Danlami which the bulldozer ran over. The security agents became spectators when miscreants at the scene were busy looting and carting away valuables of the school,” the statement added.
Last month, the government in Nigeria's Kaduna state declared the IMN as an "unlawful society”, claiming that its processions were a danger to peace, and said anyone convicted of being a member of the movement could be incarcerated for up to seven years.
Some 100 people were killed and several others injured on November 12, when Nigerian forces opened fire on Muslim mourners commemorating the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS).
On Friday, IMN members buried the bodies of 8 people, including an infant, who were killed in the attack.
Other martyrs of the attack are said to have been buried in mass graves by the Nigerian forces.
Supporters of the IMN have been subjected to heavy-handed crackdown since last year, when the army attacked a religious ceremony in their stronghold city of Zaria in the north, claiming the lives of hundreds of people.
In December 2015, Nigerian forces raided the house of the IMN’s leader, Sheikh Zakzaky, and arrested him after killing those trying 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. He 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 Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him.
The Nigerian army killed 348 Muslims during the attack on the religious ceremony, according to a report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a non-profit organization based in London.
This is while the international community has so far failed to take measures to end the crackdown in the African country.
