Soldiers surround Shi’a group in Kaduna

Days after Kaduna State Government bans the Shi’a Muslim Group, soldiers of the Nigerian army, Tuesday, surrounded a group of Shi’a Muslims in Kaduna, while they were worshipping and got some members trapped inside, days after the state government proscribed the group.They were commemorating the Islamic month of Muharram that is particularly significant in the Shia calendar, UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, said in a statement Tuesday. “Shortly before the Kaduna Markaz mosque on Zango Road was encircled by armoured military vehicles carrying heavily armed soldiers and also an ambulance were among a convoy of 18 military vehicles seen nearby,” the group said. It called on the Nigerian government to withdraw the soldiers and allow the worshippers to continue to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly and worship.Witnesses said that the standoff was at the residence of a senior Shi’a leader, Mukhtar Sahabi, and not a Mosque; they said dozens of armed soldiers and mobile police officers surrounded the compound and were waiting for those gathered inside to leave. “It appears they want to make arrests following the recent ban,” a source said. “As was feared, the new law appears to be being used as an attempt to prevent the movement’s supporters from attending ceremonies commemorating the month of Muharram,” IHRC said.The military activity is suggestive of the run-up to the massacre last December of hundreds of supporters of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria by the army and the arrest of its leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.