TheCable

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack on members of the Shia sect in Kano on Friday.

Twenty-one people, including children, were killed in the attack carried out by a suicide bomber.

Members of the Shia sect were trekking from Kano to Zaria, for their annual procession, when the bomber struck at Samawa village in Garun Mallam local government area of the state.

In a message posted on social media on Saturday, Boko Haram, said more of such incidents would happen in the days ahead.

“By the permission of Allah, these attacks of ours against Shi’a polytheists will continue ‎until we cleanse the earth of their filth,” the group warned.

This is not the first time that Boko Haram, which claims membership of Sunni, the major Islamic sect in the country, would attack the Shiites.

The group is opposed to the type of Islam being practiced by the Shiites.

Ibraheem Zakzaky introduced Shia to Nigeria in the 1980s and the group, which has its Nigerian headquarters in Zaria, Kaduna sate, now has millions of followers across the country.

According to Zakzay, Shia has been holding processions in Nigeria for over 30 years.

A clash with soldiers by members of the sect during its procession in 2014, led to the loss of 35 lives.

“A total of 35 people were killed and they (soldiers) wounded a lot of people, including children and women,” Zazkay had said at a press conference in 2014.

“It was during that shooting that one of my sons, Mahmud, a student of Almustapha International University in Beirut, was shot. He came home for holiday at the beginning of this Ramadan. He was shot at his abdomen. He was brought here bleeding, they wanted to take him to the hospital, but the soldiers had blocked the way. He therefore bled to death.”