By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, (AA): Nearly 350 bodies were buried in a mass grave following clashes between the Nigerian army and Shia Muslims in northwest Kaduna state last December, an official said Tuesday.

“In total, we buried 347 bodies in a mass grave at Mando cemetery following the crisis,” Balarabe Lawal, secretary to the state government, told a judicial commission of inquiry.

In a submission, he said 191 unidentified corpses were taken from an army depot in Zaria – close to the site of the initial clashes – and the remains of another 156 people were recovered from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital.

The violence began on Dec. 12 when members of the Shia community blocked a convoy carrying army chief Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai in Zaria. The army claimed it was an attempt to assassinate Buratai and in the following violence hundreds of Shia were killed. The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) claimed up to 700 of its followers were massacred.

Lawal said the corpses were of youth members of the IMN. He did not say whether relatives had been given the chance to identify and recover the bodies.

Human Rights Watch has claimed that no fewer than 300 Shia were killed in the incident.

The revelation contradicts earlier claims by the army and the government that around seven people were killed.

IMN leader Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky was reportedly injured in a raid on his home in wake of the killings and is still being detained with his wife at a government facility in capital Abuja.

Nigeria: Death toll mounts as Shia Muslims protest against ‘massacre’

[Photo: Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and his wife still being detained in Abuja. Photographer: Tajo Malli/Creative Commons]