Nigerian forces kill Shia scholar "Sheikh Qaseem Sokoto" in a peaceful Free Zakzaky protest

AhlulBayt News Agency - Sheikh Qaseem Umar Sokoto was shot by Nigeria Police, while peacefully protesting for the release of Sheikh Zakzaky, after about two weeks he finally attained martyrdom today Monday 5th January 2018.

The death has occurred of Sheikh Qaseem Umar Sokoto, who was shot by Nigerian Police while peacefully protesting against the illegal detention of Sheikh Zakzaky – the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.

Sheikh Qaseem was receiving treatment at a private facility in Kano where he was taken to, when the police acting on a tip off, identified and shot him in Abuja some weeks back.

Sheikh Qaseem was a learned teacher and an integral contributor to the IMN. He suffered so much persecution especially during the previous administration of Wammako in Sokoto State, when he was violently arrested along with hundreds of members in 2007 but was set free by the courts in 2014 after a tortuous court case.

Only last week, the Federal High Court in Sokoto ruled in the favour of the members of the Movement in the case instituted by Sheikh Qaseem, for the enforcement of fundamental rights of members to practice their faith without hindrance or molestation by the government or its security agencies or their proxies.

We demand justice for his death as well as for all those who have suffered in the wake of the massacre in Zaria in 2015.

Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife Zeenah have been held by state security services since December 2015 along with several other members and supporters of the Movement following their arrest during a savage military assault against the Movement in December 2015. Both were shot during the attack in Zaria in which at least 1000 supporters, including three sons of the couple, were killed and many properties and religious spaces belonging to the Movement and its followers destroyed.