Three of our members died in police custody, Shi’ites allege

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) on Friday said three of its members who were shot and held in police custody had died.

The sect explained the deceased were arrested during Monday’s clash between its members and the police during which about 13 persons, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police died in Abuja.

The President, Media Forum of IMN, Ibrahim Musa, in a statement in Abuja said the three detainees died as a result of bullet wounds they sustained during the incident.

According to him: “More persons might die in police custody since 15 other members are still nursing various degrees of bullet wounds in detention without medication.
“All entreaties made by relatives of the detainees for the police authorities to allow them to get treatment or medication have fallen on deaf ears, an indication that they (police) are waiting for them to slowly die in excruciating pains.”

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The group accused the police of throwing decency to the dogs during their encounter with the sect, adding that police operatives dumped a sect member on the roadside “after torturing him and pouring boiling water on him.”

The IMN pleaded with the international community and human rights activists to visit the Special Anti-Robbery Squad detention facilities where its members were allegedly detained in inhuman conditions.

It further demanded the bodies of dead Shi’ite members so their families could give them decent burials.

“We also call on the police to hand over to us the wounded persons so that at least their lives can be saved. The dead bodies of the supporters of the Islamic Movement should be handed to us also, so that their families can give them a befitting Islamic funeral rite.
“Burying them in mass graves is a war crime which the police should be wary off in the future,” they stated.