Nigeria army raids based on xenophobia: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, to discuss the ongoing clashes between the Nigerian army and Shia Muslims in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s start off with what is taking place in Zaria. Recent reports are indicating that army troops have now started destroying a mosque belonging to Shia Muslims. How do you see the events transpiring over the past few days in Zaria of Nigeria?

Shadjareh: It really is outrageous in many levels. First of all this is a place of worship where not that long ago on Arba’een there were five million people gathered in it and in the park adjacent to it and now it is being bulldozed. We have got the photographs of they are bulldozing the place of worship which shows that the issue [did not have] anything to do with the safety of a general. The issue was the destruction and xenophobia and the fear of this group of people and the effort is to destroy everything that they have got and actually tried to undermine them completely.

The other worrying factor which is now being confirmed [is] that we are talking about over one thousand worshipers and people from that community … been slaughtered and massacred and it shows again that one thousand death on that side and the army cannot even show someone with a bruised toe. So no injury, no death and again highlights the reality and the fact that this was a massacre well-planned and implemented.

The third thing which is extremely worrying is the fate of Sheikh Zakzaky and his family. The army and the government are responsible for safety of all their citizens. The fact that they have sent such a brute force into the residential area and now they cannot even say what has happened to those citizens, what has happened to someone like Sheikh Zakzaky, where is he, what has happened to him, what sort of health situation has he got and what sort of safety has he got and these are the responsibility of Nigerian government. And we are extremely concerned with all these factors and indeed the photographs that we are getting, bodies being just dumped into the street and massacred. Really there [are] a lot of questions that need to be addressed by the Nigerian army and Nigerian government and the most important at this stage is the health and well-being of Sheikh Zakzaky and his family.     

Press TV: Another question that comes to mind is what were the reasons that conjured such a deadly attack by the Nigerian army against Sheikh Zakzaky and his followers? We know that an entire residential complex was put under siege; certainly many civilians were killed as a result of the attacks carried out by the Nigerian army.  

Shadjareh: Absolutely. I mean they are all civilians. There is no army. The Islamic movement in Nigeria has not got an army. It has never committed any sort of act of aggression and these civilians, they came and they used themselves as shield to protect Sheikh Zakzaky and the brutality of going there, I mean the excuse of the army which no one will buy it and everybody sees how much of a lie it is, is that a general was attacked. Well if a general was attacked 10, 12 hours before and that was unsuccessful, why suddenly you go all the way from the Hussainiyyah where you accuse that the so-called incident happened all the way to Sheikh Zakzaky’s house in a residential area and start shooting innocent people who have got no way of protecting themselves?

And this and the fact of destruction of the mosque and everything show that this had nothing to do whatsoever with safety of any general. It was well-planned to implement based on xenophobia and attack on a community which have been extremely peaceful.

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