A combined team of soldiers and police on the orders of Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i of Kaduna State “again opened fire on Muslims of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria” in Zaria “while peacefully mourning the tragic killings of 34 people during the 2014 International Quds Day by the military under the Jonathan’s administration, injuring four persons with gunshots.”

The claim is contained in a press statement released by the President of the Media Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibrahim Musa.

The statement said: “A couple of minutes after the start of the programme, the combined security operatives in about ten vehicles laid siege on the venue, the Darur Rahma cemetery, where the victims of the 2014 military attack were laid to rest, in the outskirts of Zaria city, along Zaria to Jos highway.

“We learnt that apart from the four people who suffered gunshots as a result of the indiscriminate shootings by the security agents, several others escaped with minor injuries, while some were arrested.”

In reference to the shortage of security men in various flashpoints in the state, the statement said: “The Islamic Movement condemn this unnecessary show of force by Governor Elrufa’i, believing that this soldiers and police should have been better deployed along Abuja – Kaduna and Birnin Gwari – Kaduna highways, where the menace of armed robbers and kidnappers has become rampant due to shortage of the security forces.

“We believe there is no point in killing innocent citizens that do not carry arms simply because of their religious disposition. The fact that this 2014 Quds day massacre commemoration has been going on peacefully for the past four years is enough a pointer to the undesirability of today’s attack on unarmed faithful of the Islamic Movement.”

The Islamic Movement further stated: “We, therefore, call on the good people of Nigeria and Kaduna state, in particular, to call Governor Elrufa’i to order. It is a dangerous trend the way he has turned members of the Islamic Movement as soft targets for the heavily armed trigger happy personnel under his control. Enough of this bloodshed. Was he not among the mourners that besieged the now demolished residence of our Leader Sheikh Zakzaky in the aftermath of the military attack in 2014 remonstrating with the Sheikh over the killings?

“We will like the general public and the international community to hold Governor Elrufai responsible for this latest attack, for it is on record that he boasted at a public function recently in Rigasa Kaduna that he has stopped the religious activities of the Islamic Movement in Kaduna state using brute force at his disposal, forcing us to relocate to Abuja.”