Twelve years after Quds Day massacre in Nigeria: The innocent blood still cries out for justice

By Prof. Abdullahi Danladi

Twelve years have passed since the tragedy of July 25, 2014, when members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and other people of conscience gathered to commemorate the International Quds Day in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.

Twelve long years have come and gone, governments have changed, powerful men have risen and fallen, yet the wounds of that day remain fresh, raw and unhealed.

How does time erase the memory of 34 innocent souls gunned down in broad daylight? How does one forget the sight of grieving mothers clutching the bloodstained garments of their slain children? How can parents ever silence the echoes of voices that once filled their homes with laughter? Some crimes are too monstrous to be buried beneath the sands of time.

Among the martyrs of that black Friday were three young undergraduate sons of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky: Ahmad, Hamid and Mahmood. Their youth, their dreams and their futures were extinguished in a hail of bullets. Their crime was neither theft nor violence.

They had joined millions around the world in observing the International Quds Day, an annual event instituted by Imam Ruhollah Khomeini so that humanity would never forget the suffering of the Palestinian people whose land has been usurped and whose children continue to perish under occupation and genocide.

Year after year, the procession had passed peacefully through the streets of Zaria. For more than three decades, there had been no complaint from the public. Yet, on that fateful day, the peaceful procession was met with indiscriminate gunfire, and voices raised in solidarity were drowned by the thunder of weapons.

Even now, the heart trembles at the memory of Julius Anyanwu, the Christian gentleman who became one of the noblest symbols of that tragedy. Unable to endure the sight before him, he courageously confronted the soldiers. He reminded them that the procession had been taking place for decades in front of his shop and workshop without incident.

He asked the simple but profound question that still hangs unanswered over Nigeria: “Why are you shooting?” For daring to speak the language of conscience, he too was silenced by bullets.

The blood of Anyuwu testified that injustice knows no religion and no tribe. It showed that in moments of great moral testing, humanity transcends every artificial division. His sacrifice remains an enduring lesson that truth often demands courage, and courage sometimes demands the ultimate price.

Twelve years later, many painful questions remain. What became of the committee of inquiry set up by the government in the aftermath of the gory massacre? What became of the promises that justice would be done? Where are the findings? Where are the prosecutions? Where is the closure promised to the bereaved families?

Silence has been the answer.

The committee has faded into obscurity, its reports swallowed by the machinery of power. Those who commanded and supervised the killings have departed the stage. Lieutenant Colonel S. Okwu, the officer who led the operation, has since been buried in his village. President Goodluck Jonathan is no longer in office. Governments have changed hands. Political slogans have come and gone.

But there is One before whom neither rank nor power shall avail. Allah, the Almighty and the Just, remains and is watching. He is waiting for the Day on which humanity shall be assembled, when the oppressed and the oppressor shall stand side by side with no soldiers to protect the powerful, no office to shield the influential and no committee to conceal the truth.

On that Day, every drop of innocent blood will testify. Every cry suppressed on earth will be heard in the heavens. Every injustice, however carefully hidden, will be brought into the light.

As we mark this painful anniversary, we extend our deepest condolences to all those who lost their loved ones in that tragedy. We especially convey our sympathies to our revered leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) and his noble wife, Malama Zeenah, who endured the unbearable pain of losing three beloved sons in a single day. Few parents are ever tested in such a manner, and fewer still bear their suffering with such patience and steadfastness.

Our condolences also go to the mothers who buried their children, the fathers who lost their heirs, the siblings deprived of their companions and the countless families whose lives were forever altered by the events of that day.

Twelve years may have passed, but memory has not faded. The blood of the martyrs still cries out. The tears of the bereaved have not dried. The questions remain unanswered.

History may delay justice, governments may ignore it and men may attempt to bury it, but divine justice neither sleeps nor forgets.

Indeed, there shall come a day when truth will prevail and every soul shall know what it sent forth.

Professor Abdullahi Danladi is a member of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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