Three people were allegedly killed when police tried to dispel the Ashura procession embarked upon by members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, in Kaduna on Tuesday.
Our correspondent gathered that the incident, which took place in the early hours of the day, caused confusion in Bakin Ruwa area, along the Nnamdi Azikwe expressway, popularly called western bypass in the state capital.
The IMN claimed that three of their members were killed, while others were wounded in the process.
One of the IMN leaders, Aliyu Umar, said the police attacked them while observing their religious right of Ashura mourning.
According to him: “What happened to us this morning was not a clash but an attack on unarmed members of IMN. We were observing an event in Islamic calendar which is called Ashura mourning as a procession.
“We were on our way to observe this procession. We were doing it peacefully as we were doing it before when Policemen attacked us, shooting live bullets at us where they killed three people and wounded so many others. I’m yet to confirm the number of those that are wounded,” Umar said.
When contacted, the Kaduna State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Yakubu Sabo said the allegation of killing is false and mischievous, saying: “The police relied on intelligence report and quickly moved to the scene to disperse the gathering of IMN members.
He stated that the protesters were dispersed professionally, and that no one was killed.
