Though no
official death toll was released, at least a dozen members of the
Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) were killed in confrontations with the
army during a religious procession last week in the northern city of
Zaria.
IMN leader Ibrahim
Zakzaky was seriously wounded and arrested by the army while his number
two was killed during the clashes. The military was forced to put out a
denial after rumours spread that Zakzaky's wife died in custody.
The
violence mirrors the bloody beginning of the Boko Haram insurrection in
2009, when the former leader of the Sunni militant group was executed
in police custody and the sect took up arms against the Nigerian
government.
Nigeria's highest Muslim authority, the Sultan of Sokoto, on Monday urged the authorities to show "restraint".
"Don't create a new Boko Haram," warned Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakarr in a statement.
"The past, with cataclysmic consequences that Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be allowed to repeat itself," he added.
Battling
Boko Haram is a priority for Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, who
has vowed to end the insurgency that has claimed 17,000 lives.
Boko Haram has shifted its
strategy from raiding villages to relying on deadly bomb attacks in its
quest to overthrow the government and create a hardline Islamist state
in the northeast of the west African nation of some 170 million people.
- 'Risk of escalation -
Zakzaky,
who founded IMN in the 1980s, has been monitored by Nigerian security
forces for years on suspicion that he is trying to create an independent
Shiite state.
As a defiant preacher in the late 1970s, he described the country as being run by thieves.
"The
IMN attracts impoverished Muslim youths by preaching defiance of
Nigeria's secular authorities and offering a social infrastructure that
is not provided by the state," said Malte Liewerscheidt, Africa analyst
at Verisk Maplecroft, a research and investment firm.
"Like other
Shiite movements around the world, the IMN enjoys political and
financial support from the Shia regime in Iran," Liewerscheidt said.The army says the hardline rhetoric boiled over into violence in Zaria, with the Shiite worshippers allegedly attacking the convoy of army chief Yusuf Buratai -- a claim denied by IMN.
Soldiers attacked and destroyed a mosque, while Zakzaky was severely injured and his house was destroyed.
The
total toll of the clashes, which continued between soldiers and
hundreds of Shiite faithful for two days, is unknown, but it is likely
to amount to dozens of deaths, according to testimony gathered by AFP.
"Whilst
the final death toll is unclear, there is no doubt there has been a
substantial loss of life at the hands of the military," said M.K.
Ibrahim, director of Amnesty International in Nigeria, who called for a
"impartial investigation" into the Zaria events.
"Since
Nigeria's security forces are ill-equipped and trained to deal with
riot control, the escalation of a local confrontation with the IMN was
just a matter of time," said Liewescheidt.
"The risk of
escalation will be compounded if the military response spirals out of
control and if due process is ignored in the handling of Zakzaky and his
followers who are in custody."However, not everyone sees IMN as a nascent insurgency.
"Nigeria's small Shiite minority is generally well integrated within Nigerian society," said Roddy Barclay, analyst at strategy firm Africa Practise.
"It is important to note that Zakzaky's Shiite followers would find little affinity with Boko Haram’s ultraconservative Sunni fighters," he said. "However, the personal cult around Sheikh Zakzaky has been a source of tension."
"They are small in
numbers and somewhat isolated as a grouping, limiting prospects for an
emergent insurgency parallel to that of Boko Haram," said Barclay.
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