Death toll following the clash between the Shi’ite sect and the army in Zaria, on Friday, has risen to 35.
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria otherwise known as Shi’ite sect, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky confirmed the 35 figure at a press briefing yesterday in Zaria.
It would be recalled that on Friday the Shi’ite sect and military personnel at the PZ area clashed while the former were on procession to mark the Qudus day, killing the son of Sheikh El-Zakzaky and three others.
Speaking while addressing the press, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky said the soldiers killed about 35 people, including his three biological sons in the procession.
Narrating the ordeal, Sheikh El-Zakzaky said as at yesterday they had a total of
16 corpses in their custody while nine corpses were taken to the teaching hospital in the night, apart from his three children.
He added that the soldiers also killed three people this morning as they were passing by in front of Hussainiya, headquarters of the movement.
He said, “One of my sons, Mahmud, student of Almustapha University, Beirut was shot at the abdomen and started bleeding, we tried to rush him to the hospital but the soldiers blocked everywhere along the way he bled to death.
El-Zakzaky said it was the police that assisted them to locate the whereabout of the people, where they understood that the people were taken to Basawa.
“When we demanded for the release of our people the army refused that they would take them to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, ABUTH, for medication not knowing that the two were killed.
However, the army headquarters through, Brig-Gen. Olajide Laleye, the Nigerian Army spokesperson, had assured that the incident is being investigated to determine what transpired.