AhlulBayt News Agency

source : PressTV
Tuesday

13 December 2011

8:30:00 PM
283928

Thousands of Bahraini protesters demand the release of political prisoners

Thousands of Bahraini demonstrators have taken part in a major protest rally demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to the rule of the US-backed Al Khalifa regime.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Thousands of Bahraini demonstrators have taken part in a major protest rally demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to the rule of the US-backed Al Khalifa regime.

During the protest effort, dubbed the Festival of People's Triumph and organized by Bahrain's largest opposition group al-Wefaq, protesters called for an end to human rights violations by Saudi-backed Bahraini forces, demanding the ouster of the authoritarian regime and the release of hundreds of political prisoners that have been detained during the country's months-long revolution.

"Releasing political prisoners, restoring people's jobs - these are easy steps, if the king is serious about meaningful change," said Mansoor al-Jamri the editor of al-Wasat, the only independent newspaper in Bahrain.

The US-backed Bahraini regime has lately intensified its crackdown on protesters despite a recent report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) that declared the Manama government responsible for committing gross human rights violations against anti-regime protesters.

The report, issued on November 23, states that the ruling Al Khalifa regime had used "excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees" in efforts to crush popular protest rallies in the country.

Bahraini anti-regime protesters on Tuesday reiterated their determination to struggle for "the cause of the martyrs of the revolution."

Dozens of Bahraini people have been killed and thousands more have been injured, detained and tortured since February, when the popular revolution originally started. Hundreds of Bahrainis have also been fired from their jobs for taking part in mass protests.

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