Leader of the Islamic Movement Nigeria, His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky has blamed the Nigerian military for the bomb attack on Ashura peaceful procession in Potiskum on Monday, which killed about 28 people and rendered 80 injured.
Sheikh Zakzaky had on Sunday alerted on a plan to attack the Ashura procession in Zaria.
Speaking during the 11 th day of Muharram Majlis at the Husainiyyah Baqiyyatullah, Zaria on Monday, the Leader explained that the bomb was thrown into the dispersing crowd by the soldiers and later came with armoured vehicles and opened fire on the already bereaved people at the Fudiyyah school.
He described the present government as bunch of wild beasts, with insatiable appetite for the citizens’ blood. ”They killed mostly children dramatizing the tragedy of Karbala. What we have is a heartless government backed by wild beast military with license to kill. They cannot blame this atrocity on any group. We know it is them”, he added.
Sheikh Zakzaky who made similar statement to the BBC Hausa Service said, the attack in Potiskum was pre-planned as they did in Zaria on Quds Day, adding that the Movement had prior knowledge of the plan to be executed in Zaria, but that it was least expected in Potiskum.
He further explained that, the plan was masterminded by Israel and United States to clampdown on the Islamic Movement. “Part of the plan was to use poisonous gas on the people during the procession from Tudunwada area up to Kwangila in addition to planned bomb attack during the Zaria Ashura procession. Let them come out and dispute this claim. They are still bent on executing it. But we least expected an attack on the Potiskum procession. These people can do anything to satisfy their masters”.
He stressed that the Potiskum attack was a continuation of the Zaria Quds massacre, which three months now the Nigerian government was yet to make any public comment on the incident. “They have spent five months in Zaria planning the July 25 massacre. The plain clothes security operatives brought to Zaria for the aborted attack on Ashura have now been withdrawn from the streets, but are still around contemplating the plan”, said Sheikh Zakzaky.
Sheikh Zakzaky described what happened in Zaria and Potiskum a shame of a nation, who engages in all-out war on its citizens to satisfy a foreign interest in exchange for worldly pleasure or reward. “If these people have lived in the days of Imam Hussain, they would have done more harm to him than Yazid. There is Husssain and Yazid in ever period, they are the Yazids of our time’.
The Leader further stated that, the tragedy meted by the Nigerian military in Potiskum was Karbala reincarnated, which he pointed out has translated the historical documentation of Karbala tragedy into physical reality for people to deduce lessons.
According to him, Ashura has become a threat to the global arrogance and their stooges in Nigeria, especially with the unprecedented outing of people to the procession this time around.
He stressed that Ashura has come to stay, and therefore encouraged people to be steadfast on the path of Imam Hussain in the face of threat to life, as exemplified by the Imam in order to save humanity. Sheikh Zakzaky invoked Allah’s wrath on those who committed the atrocities in Potiskum, the government and their masters, as well as its supporters.
