Nigerian parliament: violent clashes during a Shiite demonstration

Outside the National Assembly of Nigeria, violent clashes between the police and Shiite protesters.

Protesters said police shot dead two people, but police said they used "minimal force" and eight security forces were wounded.

Members of the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim sect, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), protested the detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.

He has been detained since 2015.

Police said two of their officers were shot in the leg and six others were wounded by batons and stones.

They added that 40 members of the sect had been arrested.

Abdullahi Muhammad Musa, an IMN member, told Reuters that police opened fire and killed two protesters while they were trying to break into the badembly building peacefully.

Sheikh Zakzaky's supporters have been protesting regularly since his arrest in the aftermath of the clashes between his supporters and the army.

The army had accused its supporters of attempting to badbadinate the army chief of staff, which the IMN denied.

The army killed 347 IMN members during the clashes, while a soldier was killed, according to a judicial investigation.

Sheikh Zakzaky appeared for the first time in court since his arrest in May 2018 in the Kaduna High Court in northwestern Nigeria. The case continues.

Shiites in Nigeria

• Shiites are a minority in Nigeria but their numbers are growing
• The IMN, formed in the 1980s, is the main Shiite group led by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.
• It operates its own schools and hospitals in some northern states
• He has a history of clashes with security forces
• IMN is supported by a Shia-dominated Iran and its members often go there to study
• Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram condemns Shiites as heretics who should be killed