No fewer than four persons were allegedly killed in Kaduna on Friday when Police operatives clashed with members of the outlawed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shiites, during a procession to mark the International Quds Day.
This is even as 23 other members of the religious group sustained varying degrees of injury during the incident when it was alleged that the Police fired shots at them in a bid to disperse them.
But, Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Mansir Hasan, who denied the allegations, however, confirmed that three of their officers sustained injuries following an attack from the Shiite members, adding that the injured officers have been taken to the hospital for treatment.
He denied the allegations that they killed members of the IMN, saying that no live ammunition was used to disperse the processing Shiite members.
The PPRO said, “We got the information that the members of the proscribed IMN were going to hold a massive protest in the state and the command deployed its men to most of the strategic places to stop them from blocking the road, especially Ahmadu Bello Way Kaduna.
“On sighting our men deployed there, the IMN members started throwing stones, firing catapults, and locally made guns against our men which led to three of our men sustaining injuries and now receiving treatment at a police clinic,” he said.
He said the police used teargas to disperse them, which also led to the arrest of eight suspects.
He listed the items recovered from the suspects to include; three locally fabricated guns, catapults and other dangerous locally-made weapons.
On the alleged killing of four IMN members, the PPRO denied the allegation, asking where were the bodies of those killed.
“If they claimed four of their members were killed, where are the bodies and which hospital were they taken to? How can we identify them, our men didn’t use live ammunition but only used teargas to disperse them,” he said.
Shi’ite members trooped out in their large number on Friday for a peaceful procession within Kaduna metropolis to mark the International Quds Day when the police tried to disperse them on the ground that the group has been proscribed.
The Shiite members had converged near the Katsina Roundabout along Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna shortly after the Friday prayers to carry out what they called a peaceful procession before the police came yo disperse them which resulted into a commotion.
This situation created tension among residents, particularly among those with businesses located along Ahmadu Bello Way as shots were fired by the police to disperse the Shiite members.
Speaking to journalists in an interview after the incident, Malam Aliyu Tirmiziy, one of the leaders of the Shiites group, confirmed that four of their members were killed while 20 others were injured.
He said, “We usually come out on the last Friday of every Ramadan to process peacefully and show our support to the people of Palestine for the inhuman treatment they are being forced to face which is also being done by others across the globe.
“We usually have a peaceful procession but this time around, as we were about to start, the police came and threw teargas at us and started shooting and in the process, four of our members were killed while 20 were injured.”
