The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, has rejected a government proposal to halt his activities in return for his release from prison.

Zakzaky’s wife said the senior Muslim cleric had stressed that he would not give up the decades-long activities of the Islamic Movement.

Sheikh Zakzaky has been detained without trial for over two years. The IMN says Zakzaky must be freed after a court ruled his detention without charge illegal.

The top Shia cleric lost his left eyesight in the raid, which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Sheikh Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. The cleric, his wife, and a large number of his followers have since been in custody.

A judicial inquiry after the 2015 brutal raid concluded that the military had killed 347 IMN members in Zaria. Soldiers buried the bodies in mass graves.

Several international organizations and human rights groups have denounced “the Zaria massacre."

Zakzaky lost his left eye sight in a raid, which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria back in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.