Nigerian Forces Attack Shia Arbaeen Mourners Again
The army and police confronted hundreds of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), the group's spokesman Ibrahim Musa told AFP, amid reports of casualties.
A witness told Reuters news agency that the military shot at the protesters who were marking Arbaeen, the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam.
They were also demanding the release of Ibrahim Zakzaky, the country’s top Shia leader.
"The security agents attacked members of the IMN when they were in the procession coming into Abuja," Musa said.
"People were killed definitely," said Musa, who was not at the procession and could not give a death toll.
"We don't carry arms on our procession, we don't block roads ... the security agents have decided to shed our blood," he added, according to Al Jazeera.
The group says Zakzaky must be freed after a court ruled his detention without charge illegal.
On Saturday, the military shot dead three Shia followers during a similar attack on their procession on the outskirts of Abuja.
According to the army, soldiers transporting weapons and ammunition were "attacked" by group’s members - an account the IMN "categorically refutes".
The group members had established an "illegal roadblock denying motorists free passage" and when the military tried to clear the barrier they were met with "stiff opposition", army spokesperson James Myam said in a statement on Sunday.
Soldiers opened fire on the IMN members after they "pelted the troops with stones" and attempted to "cart away the ammunition and missiles the troops were escorting", the statement added.
Zakzaky has been jailed since December 2015 when security forces killed hundreds of members of his group in a crackdown on the group.
Rights groups have accused Nigeria's military of killing more than 300 IMN supporters and burying them in mass graves during the 2015 confrontation, a charge the army denies.
