KANO: At least 10 people were killed and several injured on Monday when Nigerian police opened fire during clashes with pro-Iranian Shias outside northern Kano, the latest round of violence involving the group, witnesses and police said.

Violence broke out when police tried to disperse thousands of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) marching from Kano in Kano state, to Zaria in Kaduna state — where they have been banned — for Ashura.

There have been several incidents of sectarian violence involving the IMN in the past year in Nigeria, with Sunni Muslim mobs attacking Shia ceremonies just in recent weeks.

“The police arrived and started firing teargas canisters on the procession of Shias to disperse them,” said grocer Ilyasu Ammani. “I saw bodies sprawled on the ground before the police evacuated them,” he added of the violence in Kwanar Dawaki on the outskirts of Kano. Witness Kabiru Mudassir said he saw more than “10 bodies being taken away in a police van.”

The IMN seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-style revolution and has been in conflict with the Nigerian government over the years.

Published in Dawn November 15th, 2016