Iran Press/ Africa: In his reaction to the government's action in proscribing the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky noted: "The IMN is not a name, it is an ideology like Islamic awareness, Islamic ideology, Islamic education, or Islamic philosophy. It is a sort of concept. We never used it as a name, and the movement can never be banned or proscribed."
"My wife and I still have bullets in our bodies," said Sheikh Zakzaky.
He added: "My wife has a full bullet lodged in her body which doctors have been unable to remove. But, experts from outside the country promise that they can do something about it."
Sheikh Zakzaky said proscribing the IMN is just like saying one is not permitted to practice his religion, contrary to the Nigerian constitution.
In December 2015, the Nigerian army raided Huseiniyya Baqiyhatullah, a Centre for Shi'a Religious activities, and Sheikh Zakzaky's house in Zaria town in Kaduna State, killing hundreds of armless civilians, among them women and children.
It wounded the leader of the IMN and his wife with gunshots, a massacre that has been condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other international activists.
During an aborted trip for medical treatment in India in August 2019, the Nigerian authority seized their international passports. It refused to hand them back even though Kaduna State High Court ordered their release on 28 July 2021.
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