Some female members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) were beaten up by soldiers along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway in the nation’s capital on Tuesday morning.
Soldiers, who mounted strategic location on the ever-busy road, had flagged the vehicle conveying the women.
Immediately, they alighted, the soldiers whipped and kicked the defenceless women.
They were later whisked into a van parked by the road.
Our correspondent, who was at the scene, also saw the security operatives harassing passengers and passersby.
The soldiers searched the vehicles in the bid to identify IMN members.
“Come out now! You are one of them!” a well-built armed soldier barked at a man in one of the buses.
A lady, who preferred anonymity, said she and two other members of her family were on their way to Jabi Motor Park when the passengers on the bus conveying them were forced out of the bus.
“Before my mother get on the bus again, the driver was forced to move on. We could not help but cry hard as we don’t know what will happen to her.”
Daily Trust cannot independently verify how many persons were arrested as at the time of filing this report.
Our correspondent learnt that the Shiites were moving to a location where they were to hold a procession.
Also, SaharaReporters reported that gunshots from security agents rented the air in Gwarinpa Estate along the Kubwa Expressway in Abuja on Tuesday, as members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) otherwise known as Shi’ites and security agents clashed.
Six persons were reportedly killed in the incident while many sustained injuries.
Joint security operatives were said to have opened fire on members of the sect when they were about to round off their Arbaeen Symbolic Trek.
The incident, which occurred at the Gwarinpa gate near Galadimawa when the gun-wielding security agents arrived at the scene, threw the trek into confusion as people scampered for safety.
Two people were also said to be shot at a new generation bank inside the estate.
The Secretary of Academic Forum of IMN, Abdullahi Musa, also confirmed the incident when contacted by SaharaReporters.
“They are just shooting people. As I am talking to you now, six people have been killed. They even carried some dead bodies away,” he said.
Members of the sect had on Tuesday morning come out in continuation of their procession to mark the fortieth day of the murder of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad who was killed on 10th Muharram.
The protesters in their numbers hoisted two flags, one red and the other black, with the chanting songs.
Despite the ban on Shiites procession in Abuja, members of the sect have continued to march on the streets of the nation’s capital at intervals.
On July 28, 2021, a Kaduna High Court discharged and acquitted Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, IMN Leader, who spent seven years in detention.
He was arrested after some of his followers clashed with soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna State, in 2015.
The Kaduna State government had charged him with culpable homicide.