3 killed, scores injured in Shiites, police clash

Sheikh el-Zakzky said that his followers had reported to him that three people were killed and 12 wounded when the police opened fire on them. But the Kaduna State Police Command denied report of loss of live, and said that several demonstrators had been arrested. “They began stoning the police and then the trouble erupted. […]

Sheikh el-Zakzky said that his followers had reported to him that three people were killed and 12 wounded when the police opened fire on them.

But the Kaduna State Police Command denied report of loss of live, and said that several demonstrators had been arrested.

“They began stoning the police and then the trouble erupted. The police used firearms in self-defence,” said Assistant Police Commissioner Abubakar Danmalam.

The crisis, according to an aide of Sheikh Zakzaky, Malam Haruna Shelleng, who spoke to Weekly Trust through telephone, took place at Kofar Doka in Zaria city when the procession was about to be completed.

 He gave the names of the deceased as Musa Muhammad Jaji and Abdulrahman Gyallesu and another person, yet to be identified. Scores of members of the movement, according to him, sustained various degrees of injuries from gun shots.

“As a result of the attack, so far, our brothers were killed, others wounded and the rampaging armed policemen also took away two of our members. We can’t exactly say anything about their condition now because they are still in their custody,” Shelleng said.

Eyewitness accounts revealed that the mobile police, mostly from the Operation Yaki squad (Kaduna State joint military and police patrol team) opened fire at the teaming demonstrating Shiites as the procession approached the Kofar Doka base of the squad.

One of the demonstrators, who identified himself as Ahmad Salisu, who came to Zaria from Zamfara State for the annual demonstration, told Weekly Trust that they were in the middle of the procession when the police began to open fire on their colleagues who were leading the march.

“We were not shot because we were at the middle of the march. We heard sounds of police guns when they began firing at brothers. At least 35 people were shot by the police and out of this number, five were reported dead,” Salisu told Weekly Trust.

As at the time Weekly Trust correspondent arrived the scene of the incident, the alleged dead bodies and the injured persons were evacuated by a private ambulance.

Weekly Trust couldn’t establish the hospital where the corpses and the injured were taken to but a source told our correspondent that the demostrators might have made arrangement for the treatment of their members as they have anticipated the incident.

Our reporter has however seen the ambulance moving to the Sabon Gari/Gaskiya end of the Zaria city – Sabon Gari road.

Another eyewitness, Bello Isa, who was trapped in the clash, narrates the incident thus: “I closed from work on my way home inside the ancient city; I was trapped right inside that storm. We have to (find) our way out of the commotion but before we could do that, I saw five (people) lying on the road writhing in pool of their blood.

“While the police were shooting the Shi’ites, the Brothers were also firing back with something like bow and arrow – in Hausa we call it Gwafa.

They cut iron rods into small pieces and were using these Gwafas to fire back at the police.

“Apart from the Shiites, I also saw some policemen who were injured. I saw at least three injured policemen who were being assisted by their fellow corps,” Isa told Weekly Trust.

Early morning yesterday, fiercely looking mobile policemen were strategically located at various corners of the ancient city, signalling that the police were ready for any eventuality since it is the tradition of the movement to stage Qudus march every last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan to show solidarity with the Palestine over the seizure of the Al-Aqsa mosque in 1967 by Israel.

Despite the heavy presence of the police, however, the Shiites went ahead to stage the demonstration when they took off from the Kwata mosque in Sabon Gari, Zaria. The procession marched up to Kofar Doka, a distance of about four kilometers, before they were dispersed by the police.

In anticipation of the annual demonstration by the Shiites, many residents of Zaria had left their vehicles at home to board commercial buses to their various places of work.

Kaduna State Police Commissioner Tambari Yabo Muhammad was in Zaria yesterday night but declined to address the journalists who were waiting for him at the Zaria Police Area Command headquarters, saying that he would address them today.

The commissioner had also visited the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, and held discussion with him over the matter.

Weekly Trust gathered that the movement’s procession in other Northern cities that included Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Talata Mafara among others was held without any skirmishes.