Iranians rally to protest Shia killing in Nigeria

Rasa - Iranians have staged demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, and several other major cities across the country to condemn Nigerian military’s bloody crackdown on the Shia Muslim community in the African country.

News ID: 3697

Date: 19 December 2015 - 10:34

RNA - Tehran saw people taking to the streets in droves after the Friday Prayers to show support for the Shia Muslims in Nigeria.

The protesters chanted slogans and carried placards in condemnation of the international community’s silence on the massacring of the oppressed Nigerian Muslims.

Local media said on December 12 that more than a dozen people were killed after clashes erupted between the Nigerian army and Shia Muslims in the northern city of Zaria in Kaduna State.

The clashes broke out when Nigerian soldiers opened fire on the people attending a religious ceremony at Hussainiyyah Baqeeyatullah, a religious center belonging to the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). The Nigerian military accused the Shias of trying to stop the passing convoy of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai.

The military accused the Shias of attempting to assassinate Buratai - a charge Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, the IMN leader, denied at the time.

One day later, Zakzaky was arrested during a raid by the army on his residence and the buildings connected to the Shia community in Zaria. Local sources say hundreds of people trying to protect the cleric were killed.

On Friday, Spokesman for the Islamic Movement of Nigeria Ibrahim Musa told Press TV that Nigerian officials are still withholding information about the whereabouts of top Muslim cleric Sheikh.

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