Kaduna state director-general of Interfaith agency, Namadi Musa, had said on Monday that he spent five hours conducting mass burial for victims of the December clash involving soldiers and some members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shi’ites.
Last December, the army clashed with members of the Shiite sect in Zaria, Kaduna State. The Shiites had barricaded the road. The army thereafter claimed members of the Islamic sect were hell bent on assassinating army chief Tukur Buratai and that only 7 Shiites lost their lives in the face-off.
At the ongoing Public Hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the clash, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Balarabe Lawal, disclosed that 347 Shiites indeed lost their lives during the confrontation.
TheScoop writes that the burial of the victims was done in secret, and that this is the first time the state government was explaining how the remains of the killed Shiite members were disposed of.
According to the online newspaper, Lawal who led a six-man government witness before the panel, said 191 corpses were taken from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, and were buried at Mando area of Kaduna.
He said 156 corpses were also conveyed from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, to the same Mando area.
The official said the corpses were those of youth members of the Islam Movement (IMN) who he alleged attempted to attack the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Dec. 12, 2015, in Zaria.
The state government said the corpses were committed into a single grave (mass burial) at the Mando area jointly supervised by the state government officials and about 40 men of the Nigerian Army, led by an officer in the rank of a Major.
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