Nigerian police seek to arrest members of banned Shi'ite group

LAGOS, July 30 (Reuters) - Nigerian police are seeking help
from the general public to arrest members of a banned Shi'ite
Muslim group whose protests were declared illegal on Sunday, the
country's most senior policeman said on Tuesday.
Nigeria's government banned the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
(IMN) after a week of clashes between police and its followers,
who have been holding protests to demand the release of their
detained leader.
The group says at least 20 of its followers were killed by
police in crackdowns on demonstrators last week; police have
given no death toll. The group's leader Ibrahim Zakzaky has been
held since 2015 when government forces killed around 350 people
in a storming of the group's compound and a nearby mosque.
The government says IMN incites violence, and a court has
given the authorities permission to label it a terrorist
organisation. The group says it does not practice violence and
argues that Zakzaky is being held illegally in violation of a
2015 court order to free him. On Monday a judge adjourned a bail hearing for Zakzaky until
Aug. 5.
The IMN is the largest Shi'ite group in a country where
around half the population is Muslim, overwhelmingly Sunni.
Nigeria considers some Islamist movements to be a security
threat after a decade combating the insurgency by Sunni Muslim
militant group Boko Haram in which 30,000 people have been
killed. The death of Boko Haram's leader in custody was one of
the events that set it on a violent path.
The inspector general of police, Mohammed Adamu, addressing
senior members of the police force on Tuesday, said he wanted
the public to share information to "aid in the identification of
the locations of the IMN members and their mentors as well as in
working with us in apprehending and bringing them to justice".
Any person who is an IMN member or associated with the group
"shall be treated as a terrorist.... and shall be brought to
justice," said Adamu, adding: "All forms of procession or
protest by IMN is now illegal and thus banned."