One Week After Zaria Bloodbath: Shiites Speak

The clashes between the members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and the men of the Nigerian army erupted in Zaria, Kaduna state, one week ago, on Saturday, December 12, and continued throughout the weekend. There are many unclear details starting from the exact whereabouts and health condition of the Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, ending the death toll.
 
A correspondent of TheNation spoke to some members of the group and learnt several unknown details.
The IMN member Mallam Abdullahi Usman said the Shiites thought they had seen worst of the military during the December 12 face off, not knowing the troops were preparing an operation later in the night.
“When I got
to sleep around 12 midnight, my sleep was suddenly interrupted by sound of gunshots. When I heard the first few gunshots, I thought it was security men that were on patrol. But when it continued at close range, I realised that there was trouble.
“Let me tell you that what the military told the public, that there was exchange of fire with the sect members, was false. Because even me, I was nearly killed. I slept among my dead brothers, pretending to have been hit by the soldiers’ bullets too.
“Let me tell you, I cannot even say this is the number of brothers that the soldiers killed. They were so many. After lying down in the midst of the corpses of other brothers for hours, I became psychologically traumatised seeing soldiers killing unarmed citizens.
“I don’t even know how I escaped from the scene after the soldiers had gone with Sheikh El-Zakzaky.”
Abdulmumin Giwa, another member of the group, said that some residents of Zaria behaved worse than the Nigerian soldiers on a killing spree.
“We are consoled by the fact that our brothers who were killed by soldiers died as martyrs, and by Allah’s grace, paradise is their abode. But, residents of Zaria, particularly those around the area displayed lack of fear of God.
“While our brothers were lying in the pool of their own blood, some youths resident in the area went there not on a mission to rescue the injured but to rob the dead. This is not something hidden. The video of how people robbed our dead colleagues has gone viral on the social media, particularly Facebook. This shows that there is no sympathy for the dead any longer.
“Mind you, these are the people who live around the scene of the attack. They heard everything that transpired between our brothers and the soldiers. This is not even someone who died of a natural cause. They were killed by soldiers and some people did not even feel sorry for them. Instead, they were robbing them.
“In fact, they were fighting themselves over the money, mobile phones and other valuables stolen from corpses of their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. This is even worse than the action of the soldiers who killed them. It is an indication that if those people had guns too, they won’t mind killing people to take their property.”