நைஜீரியா: ஷியா சுன்னி கலவரத்தில் 1 பலி பலர் படுகாயம்

நைஜீரியாவில் சுன்னி தலைவரை ஒரு இனம் தெரியாத பயங்கரவாதி சுட்டதினால், ஷியாக்கள் தாக்கப்பட்டார்கள்.

Sunni cleric shot in Nigeria, mob attacks Shi'ites
Reuters
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; 6:47 PM


SOKOTO, Nigeria (Reuters) - An unknown gunman shot a Sunni cleric at a mosque in the far northwestern Nigerian city of Sokoto on Wednesday and a Sunni mob attacked Shi'ite headquarters in the city in retaliation, witnesses said.

Police and soldiers threw tear gas at crowds carrying machetes and sticks to stop them invading the large residential compound of the city's minority Shi'ites.

Witnesses said four men arrived at the central mosque after evening prayers and one of them shot Umaru Danshiya, a popular cleric well-known in the city for his sermons against the Shi'ites.

Conflicting reports emerged in the following hours about whether the cleric had survived the shooting. Authorities were unable to say what had happened and it was also unclear if there were any casualties in the mob violence.

"The four men arrived in a Peugeot after prayers. They went inside and one of them brought out a gun and shot the cleric," said Malam Mainasara, who had just taken part in the prayers.

Troops and police were patrolling the city late in the evening. Groups of young Sunni men were circulating, carrying weapons and threatening to renew their attack on the Shi'ite compound.

The deeply religious city on the fringes of the Sahara desert is the seat of the sultan of Sokoto, spiritual leader of Nigeria's estimated 70 million Muslims.

The Shi'ite community is a relatively recent arrival in a city dominated by Sunni Islam for centuries. Tensions have broken out into sporadic fighting although the situation had been calm for about two years before Wednesday's shooting.

Members of the communities clashed several times in May and June 2005, ostensibly over doctrinal differences and access to the central mosque, although the state governor at the time accused political parties of sponsoring the violence.

Those clashes killed at least a dozen people and many more according to some residents.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with 140 million people, divided about equally between Muslims and Christians. Sectarian violence between members of the two major religions has killed thousands of Nigerians in the past eight years but fighting within the Muslim community is unusual.