AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Press TV
Monday

18 July 2011

7:30:00 PM
254501

Bahrainis hold protest rally in Sitra

Thousands of Bahraini anti-government protesters have poured into the streets in the island city of Sitra to call for the removal of the Al Khalifa royal family from power.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Demonstrators took to streets in Sitra, situated 12 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the capital Manama on Monday to denounce the violent suppression of anti-government protests in the Persian Gulf state by Saudi-backed government forces, and voiced outrage over the death of 47-year-old Zainab Hasan Ahmed al-Jumaa, a video obtained by Press TV showed.

Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said on Saturday that the Bahraini woman died on Friday after inhaling tear gas fired during clashes between Bahraini forces and anti-government protesters near her home in Sitra.

Meanwhile, more Bahraini opposition groups are expected to quit a so-called national dialogue just days after the country's largest opposition party, the Islamic National Accord Association (Al Wefaq) decided to withdraw.

On Sunday, Wefaq said it was pulling out of the national dialogue set up by the government because the talks were occurring "without success" and that pro-government representatives dominated the talks.

"The Wefaq board decided to pull out of the so-called National Consensus Dialogue and submitted its decision to the Wefaq Shura council for ratification," Khalil al-Marzouk, Wefaq spokesman, said.

“The Wefaq team will not attend the talks. We have tried but without success to make it a serious dialogue,” he added.

Wefaq has been complaining for weeks that the opposition has been given too small a fraction of seats -- 35 out of 300 -- and is overpowered by pro-government representatives.

Since the beginning of Bahrain's revolution, large numbers of anti-government protesters have poured into the streets across the Persian Gulf state, calling for more rights, freedom and wide-ranging political reforms in the political system of their country.

According to local sources, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested so far during the government clampdown on peaceful demonstrations.

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