Nigerian Shiite group demands exhumation from mass grave

Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) trooped to a mass grave outside the city of Kaduna in northern Nigeria where bodies of hundreds of Shia Muslims are buried.

The members carried out prayers at the site after a visit by inquiry officials.

According to public officials and human rights groups, about 350 bodies were dumped by the military in December.

There are claims that the number exceeds the 347 people that the Kaduna state say are in the mass grave.

Now, human right groups are calling for the exhumation of the bodies in order to determine the right figures.

Following a crackdown on a pro-Iranian sect, troops besieged the home of the group’s leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky in the northern city of Zaria.

It is alleged that the members were shot or burned alive and then dumped in the mass grave following confrontations with the military.

AFP