{"id":20433,"date":"2018-10-30T18:24:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T18:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20433"},"modified":"2018-10-30T18:24:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T18:24:26","slug":"nigerian-police-open-fire-at-shia-protesters-amid-abuja-clashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20433","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian police ‘open fire’ at Shia protesters amid Abuja clashes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Police have opened fire and shot tear gas at hundreds of Shia<\/a> Muslim protesters during clashes in Nigeria<\/a>‘s capital, Abuja, according to a witness.<\/p>\n

The crackdown came on Tuesday, a day after soldiers opened fire<\/a> on the same protest march by supporters of Ibrahim Zakzaky<\/a>, the imprisoned leader of\u00a0the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).<\/p>\n

At least one protester was wounded by the gunfire on Tuesday, the witness told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

Police was attempting to stop the march towards the city centre, where most government buildings and the presidency are located.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When marchers refused to turn back, police fired tear gas on the crowd. The protesters responded by hurling rocks, and the police opened fire, the witness said.<\/p>\n

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\nPolice attempted to stop the march towards the city centre<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[Abraham Achirga\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Monday, the soldiers killed at least 18 demonstrators, according to the protesters. The military put the death toll at three, saying that four soldiers were also wounded during the clashes.<\/p>\n

The deaths bring to six the number of IMN supporters who have been killed in demonstrations since Saturday and heighten concerns about further crackdowns on the group.<\/p>\n

The army claimed the soldiers opened fire on Saturday after the protesters attacked a military convoy and tried to steal weapons and ammunition.<\/p>\n

Imprisoned cleric<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zakzaky has been in custody since December 2015 after clashes in the northern city of Zaria.<\/p>\n

At the time, the military was accused of killing more than 300 IMN supporters and burying them in mass graves.<\/p>\n

Zakzaky has been at loggerheads with Nigeria’s secular authorities for years because of his calls for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n

Northern Nigeria is majority Sunni<\/a> Muslim.<\/p>\n

The cleric, who is in his mid-60s and lost the sight in one eye during the 2015 clashes, has only been seen in public twice since he was detained.<\/p>\n

Nigeria’s government has previously ignored a court order to release Zakzaky and his wife.<\/p>\n

In April, at least 115 IMN supporters were arrested during protests in Abuja during which police used teargas and water cannon.<\/p>\n

IMN processions for the annual Ashura festival have frequently been flashpoints. In November 2016, at least 10 people were killed when police opened fire near the northern city of Kano.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police have opened fire and shot tear gas at hundreds of Shia Muslim protesters during clashes in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, according to a witness. The crackdown came on Tuesday, a day after soldiers opened fire on the same protest march by supporters of Ibrahim Zakzaky, the imprisoned leader of\u00a0the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). At…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}