By John Shiklam in Kaduna
Two policemen and some members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN)
were injured on Wednesday in Kaduna during a clash.
The IMN members, also known as Shiites were protesting the continuous detention of their leader, Shiekh Ibraheem Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenat, when the police and other security operatives went to disperse them.
The shiite leader and his wife had been in detention since December 2015 following a clash between his members and the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna state.
Members of the Islamic group have been staging several protests in some northern cities and Abuja to demand the release of their leader.
The shiites members, mostly women and children, in their numbers, stormed the busy Ahmadu Bello Way and Lagos Street Roundabout in the heart of Kaduna city, carrying placards, demanding the release of Zakzaky.
Business and commercial activities in the city centre were grounded as traders and shop owners closed their shops and offices and deserted the area for fear of any outbreak of violence.
Vehicular movement through those areas were disrupted as the shiite members took over the roads, forcing motorists to divert to alternative routes.
However the protest became violent when the police and other security operatives were deployed to the area to disperse them.
The police were said to have fired teargas to disperse them, but the shiite allegedly responded by attacking the the police.
The two policemen were said to have been injured during the fracas.
Some of the protesting shiite members were said to have been arrested by the police.
The spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, Aliyu Muktar ,who spoke on the incident, said the police men sustained various degrees of injury and were taken to the hospital.
Mukhtar said “the Shiites in their usual procession came with many women and children and blocked the major road in the city, denying other citizens their right to use the road.
“But this time around, they came fully armed. Two of our men were critically injured and they are now receiving treatment at a hospital here in Kaduna. But I don’t know if their is any causality on their own part.
“As I speak with you, we have been able to disperse them and brought the situation under control. The police will not condone any form of lawlessness in the state” Mukhtar warned.
However, the spokesman of the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, dismissed allegations by the police that the Shiites were armed.
He also said many Shiite members were injured by the police who swooped on them while they were on a peaceful protest to demand the release of their leader.
“It is actually not a clash. We were on our peaceful Free Zakzaky protest today from Leventis Roundabout to Oriapkpata, where the police fired at us, injuring many with gunshots.
“They also arrested many, though we’re yet to have any specific figure.
“We condemned what the police did to us, firing at a peaceful protest as if we are not in a democratic dispensation. This will not deter us from seeking the freedom of our leader,” Musa said.
