Amnesty International yesterday called on the Federal Government to urgently probe the renews call for probe the “slaughter and secret burial of 347 members of a Shi’ite religious group in mass graves by the Nigerian army.”
The call which was contained in a statement by the Nigerian Country Director, MK Ibrahim yesterday in Abuja, followed the admission by Balarabe Lawal, Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the massacre, that the 347 civilians were deposited into secret mass graves.
In the statement, AI said: “The horrific revelation by the Kaduna state government that hundreds of Shi’ites were gunned down and dumped in mass graves is an important first step to bringing all those suspected of criminal responsibility for this atrocity to trial.”
He added that “it is now imperative that the mass grave sites are protected in order that a full independent forensic investigation can begin. The bodies must be exhumed and Nigerian authorities should immediately reveal the whereabouts of those held in unacknowledged detention and either charge or release them.”
The military’s massacre of Shi’ite Muslims in Zaria lasted from December 12th to December 14th 2015. The military destroyed numerous sites of worship for the Shi’ites community and abducted the leader of the Shiite community Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who remains in custody with severe injuries.
