Shiites claim child shot dead in clashes with police

A pro-Iranian Shiite group alleged on Tuesday that Nigerian police had shot dead a two-year-old girl after firing into a crowd during a religious procession in the northern city of Kano.

A leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and procession organiser Sanusi Abdulkadir said police had opened fire on thousands of people without provocation and took away corpses from the hospital.

Clashes broke out on Monday in the outskirts of Kano between police and members of the IMN taking part in an annual 130-kilometre walk to the city of Zaria to mark the Ashura religious festival.

"They (police) began by throwing teargas canisters and minutes later started firing live bullets, injuring and killing several people", Abdulkadir told reporters at the IMN headquarters in the city.

"We have eight dead bodies with us including a two-year old girl shot in the head."

A crowd of IMN members was gathered in the foyer of the building, some with injuries from the clashes.

"It is difficult to give a tentative death toll because the information reaching us is scary," Abdulkadir said.

"At the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital 40 dead bodies including men, women and children were taken to the morgue.

"The police quickly went and took the bodies away, so we don't know where they took them."

Abdulkadir estimated that more than 50 of his members could have been killed in the violence with at least 30 others injured.

'Dangerous situation'

There have been several incidents of sectarian violence involving the IMN in the past year in Nigeria, with Sunni Muslim mobs attacking Shiite ceremonies in recent weeks.

In October, Kano police banned IMN from conducting street processions ahead of the annual Ashura rites on the grounds that the group is a security threat.

Speaking to reporters in Nigeria's capital Abuja, inspector general of police Ibrahim Idris defended the decision to shoot at the IMN procession.

"They attacked our officers, killed one of our officers. One has sustained an arrow wound on his head and obviously in such a situation, police have the responsibility to ensure free movement of people on the road," Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim described the IMN procession as being "armed to the teeth" and dismissed fears that authorities' heavy-handed response would radicalise the group.

"I think as Nigerians, we have to appreciate... a dangerous situation, and to be sympathetic with the police that are being killed by some of these miscreants," Ibrahim said.

"When you worship, you go to mosques or churches. Blocking highways and passages doesn't constitute part of worship."

Mass graves

It wouldn't be the first time.

Earlier this year, Amnesty International accused Nigeria's military of deliberately shooting dead more than 350 IMN protesters in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015, destroying evidence of the crime and dumping the bodies in mass graves.

Experts cautioned against drawing too close a comparison between IMN and Boko Haram jihadists, who took up arms against the Nigerian government in 2009 following a bloody crackdown on the group and the death of its leader Mohammed Yusuf.

"At this stage we're seeing an excessive government clampdown on the IMN without there being clear evidence that it (the IMN) is going to react with an armed campaign," Ryan Cummings, director at intelligence firm Signal Risk, told AFP.

But Cummings warned that continued clashes with IMN could "radicalise" Nigerian Shiites, complicating an already volatile security situation in Nigeria, which continues to battle Boko Haram militants in the north and oil rebels in the south.