Wounded Shiite members dying in detention – Shiites Spokesman

Shiite members wounded in Military raids are
dying in Military and Police detention because
they are being denied medical care, the Shiite
Islamic Movement in Nigeria charged Monday.
Spokesman Ibrahim Musa also said the Kaduna
State Government is destroying property of the
movement, which has millions of followers. He
said a school and a shrine were bulldozed
Monday.
His allegations come as the guardian of
Nigeria's Muslims, Sultan Muhammad Sa'ad
Abubakar of Sokoto, warned the government
against actions that could radicalize other
Muslims in a country that already has lost
20,000 lives to the Boko Haram Islamic uprising.
''The history of the circumstances that
engendered the outbreak of militant insurgency
in the past, with cataclysmic consequences that
Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be
allowed to repeat itself.'' Said a statement from
the sultan, who is president of the Nigerian
Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
Boko Haram re-emerged as a much more violent
entity after security forces attacked their
mosque and compound and killed some 700
people in 2009.
Human rights activists say Nigerian troops killed
many hundreds of Shiites in raids in the northern
town of Zaria over three days Dec. 12-14. The
army says it acted after Shiites tried to block
the convoy of Nigeria's Army Chief, a charge the
Shiites deny.
It's impossible to say how many died in Zaria
as the military sealed the area for days and
Musa has charged that soldiers buried bodies in
mass graves to hide the true toll.
Musa’s statement Monday said two wounded
members died in detention on Sunday. He said
they believe at least 40 wounded members are
detained without medical care. Those detained
include Ibraheem Zakzaky, who started Nigeria's
Shiite movement 37 years ago.
Hundreds of Shiites held a peaceful protest in
Kano, Nigeria's second largest city in the north,
to demand the release of Zakzaky and other
detainees.
Musa also said Police have handed the
movement the bodies of 12 detained members
who were wounded in a protest in Kaduna city
Dec. 15. Police say they acted to prevent an
attack on a Police Station and that they only
shot tear gas into the air to disperse the
demonstrators.