LAGOS , Nigeria ( CNN ) -- Police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year , Human Rights Watch alleged Monday . Anti-riot policemen patrol the streets in Jos , Nigeria , following riots between Christians and Muslims . Most of the victims of violence by security forces were young Muslim men , often unarmed , the group charged in testimony before a state commission examining the riots and in a separate report . More than 700 people died in the violence last November , the group said , citing local religious authorities on both sides of the divide . A 26-year-old mechanic described seeing anti-riot police known as MOPOLs hunting down people near where he worked . `` I saw them enter one house just across the street from us , '' the unnamed witness said . `` We heard shots and later we saw five bodies there . Anyone they found hiding in the garage , they shot them . They combed the garage hunting for people . This went on for about 10 minutes or so . Then they returned to their truck and left . '' Another witness described police units going from house to house , summarily executing unarmed men and boys . A third said he saw an unarmed shopkeeper plead for his life . Police ordered him to lie down on the ground , the witness said . `` He kept saying , 'Please God , allow me to live. ' ... One of them said , 'Today you go die , ' and then he shot him in the side . Then the same MOPOL shot him again . As he was going to shoot him a third time , the other MOPOL said ... 'Leave it , he 's already dead . ' '' The shopkeeper managed to drag himself to a neighbor 's house , where the neighbor tried to stop the bleeding from wounds to the back and abdomen . Police then returned and shot tear gas into the neighbor 's house , he testified . The shopkeeper `` died a short time later , '' the neighbor said . In the report , released Monday , Human Rights Watch says it `` documented 133 of these killings but believes that the actual number of arbitrary killings by security forces may be substantially higher than these figures . '' James Manook , a spokesman for Plateau State where the violence occurred , said the Human Rights Watch claims are `` one of the issues that the commission has under inquiry , and given that - I do not want to comment while it 's under investigation . '' However , he added , `` I assure you that we remain respectful of the rule of law . '' The clashes followed a dispute over an election that pitted a Christian candidate against a Muslim one in late November 2008 . Police and soldiers responded to the riots with deadly force , on the same day the governor of the state issued a `` shoot-on-sight '' order , Human Rights Watch said . The group based its allegations on 151 interviews in the city of Jos in Nigeria 's Plateau State , it says in the report . It withheld the names of many of the people it interviewed over the course of 18 days in December 2008 and February 2009 . The report includes photographs of burned-out mosques , Christian boarding schools , and homes and businesses . The rights group said the state commission examining the riots should investigate and call for the prosecution of security forces involved . `` At least 130 men were killed by members of the very institutions charged with protecting them , '' said Corinne Dufka , senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch . `` These investigative bodies owe it to the victims and their families to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these extremely serious allegations . '' Eric Guttschuss , a Human Rights Watch researcher , testified before the commission Monday . There is a history of religious violence in central Nigeria , where majority-Muslim north Africa meets largely Christian sub-Saharan Africa . Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 people were killed in riots in 2001 . Local religious leaders in Jos have been trying to bridge the differences , including setting up a soccer league with teams on which Christians and Muslims play side-by-side . CNN 's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report .
Nigerian police , soldiers accused of killing 133 during riots in November 2014 . U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says main victims were young Muslim men . Witnesses say police units summarily executed unarmed men and boys . It says death toll could be ` ` substantially higher '' than the cases suggest .