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Tensions Rise After Nigerian Court Labels Muslim Sect 'Terrorists'

Timothy Obiezu

   ABUJA - Tension between a Nigerian Shi'ite Muslim group and authorities
   is growing after a court last week granted permission to label the
   Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) a terrorist organization. Security
   forces clashed violently with the group as they took to the streets of
   Abuja this month to call for the release of their leader, Ibrahim
   el-Zakzaky, who authorities have held since deadly clashes in 2015,
   despite a court order for his release.

   Maimuna Dauda's three children, two daughters and a son, are among more
   than 350 Shi'ite Muslims killed in the city of Zaria in December 2015.

   They were members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, or IMN, and had
   just returned from school when violence broke out between members of
   the group and the military as they tried to block a military convoy.

   Dauda remembers the military cracked down hard on the IMN, accusing it
   of trying to kill the Nigerian army chief.

   "I got a call from my daughter that the military had shot her in the
   stomach and her sister in the head and set the leader's house, where
   they were hiding, on fire.When I called back, I could no longer reach
   them.They had burned with the building," said Dauda.

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