Suicide bomb kills 22 in Shi’ites procession

A suicide bomber struck a procession of Shi’ite Muslims marking the Ashura Day in Potiskum yesterday, killing at least 22 people.Sixteen of the dead were children, three were women and the other three were men, according to leaders of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in the Yobe State town.The movement also said soldiers opened fire […]

A suicide bomber struck a procession of Shi’ite Muslims marking the Ashura Day in Potiskum yesterday, killing at least 22 people.
Sixteen of the dead were children, three were women and the other three were men, according to leaders of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in the Yobe State town.
The movement also said soldiers opened fire on the procession soon after the blast, killing five more people.
At least 82 others sustained varying degrees of injuries from the bombing and from gunfire.
Witnesses said the incident happened just when the annual procession was rounding up at Tsohuwar Kasuwa in Potiskum.
The bomber joined the procession before setting off his device as they marched through the market.
Ashura marks the death in battle more than 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Husain in the plains of Karbala in present-day Iraq.
The day is commemorated by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky’s followers in major cities across the country.
During yesterday’s gathering, the bomber detonated his explosives in the midst of a drama team (known as ‘Yan-Tamsiliyya) of the procession.
“I was about leaving the place when we heard a deafening sound, and children started shouting for help. Most of those killed were children between the ages of nine and 15,” he said.
Malam Mustapha Lawan Nasidi, leader of the movement in Potiskum, told Daily Trust that a total of 26 people were confirmed killed and 82 others injured.
“We counted 26 dead bodies and 82 injured. It’s the same people that have attacked us three times in the past, and this is the fourth time,” he said, referring to previous attacks on Zakzaky’s followers in Potiskum.
The first attack in May 2012 targeted his home where his younger brother and three others were shot dead, while the second and third attacks happened in July this year at a mosque and school run by the movement.
“It was a deliberate attempt to ridicule our religious rights and obligations in the state and we will not succumb,” Nasidi said.
He said the situation yesterday was worsened by soldiers who arrived and opened fire on the procession soon after the bombing.
“We hold the Nigerian military and government accountable. They openly killed our brothers and sisters,” Nasidi later told the BBC, according to a post on the the movement’s website.
“Bombs are properties of security operatives, and not civilians. Why don’t they investigate bombs that explode in this country to ascertain where they come from? Because they know it is their handiwork, or their agents’.”
There was no immediate reaction from the military on the allegation that soldiers opened fire on the Shi’ites and killed a number of people.
‘Heinous, barbaric’
Yobe State Police Commissioner Marcus Danladi said he could only confirm the death of four people and five others injured.
“Three civilians lost their lives and the suicide bomber, making four, while five people were injured,” he said.
But a staff at the Potiskum General Hospital said they received 74 injured people, while they had seen 27 bodies at the premises of the movement’s Islamic school.
“The corpses were kept under their care because they refused to release them to hospital officials, although they have started giving out corpses to relatives of those who shared different religious ideology with them,” he said.
“Twenty of the 27 corpses currently deposited at Fudiyya Islamic School are children between the ages of 7 and 13.
“And we are now screening the injured, some of them with complex cases have been referred to the Federal Medical Centres in Nguru and Azare, like those with injuries to the spinal cord and those with bullets deep inside their bodies.”
Meanwhile, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has condemned the Potiskum attack as heinous, barbaric and unwarranted.
Abdullahi Bego, the governor’s spokesman, said in a statement that Gaidam “regrets that the attack came at a time that peace is generally returning to the state.
“The governor notes that those behind the attack are criminals who want to fan the embers of religious discord. He called on all the people of the state to remain calm and vigilant.”
Gaidam also directed government hospitals in the area to provide immediate treatment to victims free of charge, Bego added.
Also, the Movement for Justice in Nigeria, through its chairman Malam Zakar Adamu Makeri, condemned the attack, saying it was unfortunate that majority of the victims were women and children. He urged authorities ensure that justice was done.
Yesterday’s attack on the Shi’ites came a day after their leader, Zakzaky, alleged that soldiers were plotting to target his followers on the Ashura Day.
On July 25, soldiers opened fire on a procession of Shi’ites in Zaria, Kaduna State, killing at least 34 people, among them three of Zakzaky’s male children.