Killers of 34 Shia protesters in Zaria Quds Day Massacre must be punished; Zakzaky a human rights leader - says Odinkalu

Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Nigeria's Shiite Islamic movement on Sunday, July 27, held an international conference in commemoration of the July 25, 2014, massacre in which at least 35 members of the group were gunned down during a peaceful protest on Al-Quds Day in northwestern Zaria town in Kaduna state.

Planned in the Nigerian capital city Abuja, the conference was organized by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, the name by which the Nigerian Shiite goes, led by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who lost at least three sons in the massacre.

The Nigerian army was criticized home and abroad for the shooting of the protesters, and the military's probe panel established to probe the incident has not made its findings public one year after.

Sunday's conference was addressed by many scholars from across the world, capping a weeklong activities commemoration the massacre whose victims included three sons of the Nigerian Shiite leader Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakyzaky.

Top Nigerian and foreign activists participated at the event including Prof Chidi Odinkalu of the National Human Rights Commission who spoke on the topic 'From Al-Quds to Zaria: A melting pot of rights violation, veil of bias and conspiracy of silence'; Barrister Festus Okoye of Network for Justice; Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, London; Sheikh Ramadhan Abdullah (Iraq), Syed Jawad Mousawi (Iran), Mohideen Abdulkadir (Malaysia), Professor Dahiru Yahaya of Bayero University, Kano.abna24.com

The Islamic movement of Nigeria says it would continue to press for justice for the victims of the massacre.

"We are not going to keep quiet until justice is done, and of course this commemoration of the incident is part of the clarion call on the authorities to do what is right," Dr Abdullahi Danladi, spokesman of the movement, said on Saturday.

"Despite claims of probing into the unjust killing of our members, no one has seen the report of the probe and no one, to the best of our knowledge, has been made to face the law for the massacre of innocent and law abiding citizens.

"This is impunity but we will continue to seek redress and justice through lawful means."

Killers of 34 Shia protesters in Zaria must be punished – Odinkalu

Military personnel involved in the killing of 34 peaceful protesters during the pro-Palestinian rally in Zaria on July 25, 2015 must be brought to book, the chairman of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Chidi Odinkalu, has said.

“If that number of people (34) can just be killed and nothing happens, then that is oppression,” the rights chief said during a conference to commemorate the killing of the Quds day protesters in Abuja on Sunday.

Speaking on the topic “From Al-Quds to Zaria: A melting pot of rights violation, veil of bias and conspiracy of silence,” Mr. Odinkalu said the NHRC “owes the country a duty to investigate and find out what truly happened that day and those implicated punished.”

He decried the conspiracy of silence of the killings, saying “if 34 young men would be killed in cold blood and then their families would be told to keep quiet, then that is the worst oppression.”abna24.com

He said the greatest injustice is to “allow a parent to bury his three young children murdered in cold blood in the same day while the society keeps quiet.”

He said the rights commission would soon conduct a public hearing to get to the root of the Zaria killings and ensure that all those implicated are appropriately prosecuted.

The NHRC chief said the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibraheem Zakzaky, whose three undergraduate sons were among those killed, is not only a religious leader but a human rights leader.

“The Shia community in Nigeria has been oppressed unjustifiably for so long in this country,” Mr. Odinkalu said.

He also said Mr. Zakzaky was among the few Nigerians that stood against the Sani Abacha military brutal regime that clamped down on human rights campaigners.abna24.com

Other speakers at the event were the Chief Imam of Washington DC, Muhammad Al-Asi; Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, London; Dahiru Yahaya of Bayero University, Kano; Yohanna Buru, an inter-faith campaigner; and Ebenezer Oyetakin of the Anti-corruption network for justice.

There was also a documentary and exhibition on the images, sights and sounds of the Zaria Quds day massacre at the event.