AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Agencies
Saturday

10 March 2012

11:38:00 AM
301682

Bahraini Forces Martyred 21-Year-Old Shia Protester in Manama

Saudi-backed Bahraini regime forces have martyred a 21-year-old protester who was trying to get to the Pearl Square in the capital Manama.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Condemning state "repression of demonstrations calling for political reforms," the Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group Wefaq said Saida Fadhel Mirza al-Obeidi, 22, was struck in the head on March 1 in Diraz, a village east of Manama.

 Doctors said his skull was fractured.

Dozens of demonstrators were injured in the crackdown on the peaceful fresh rally, the activists said.

Policemen fired tear gas at a group of protesters but the rally was largely peaceful and no one arrested, said Nabil Rajab, an activist who heads the Bahraini Centre for Human Rights.

The royal palace, in a statement, said the demonstration was able to go ahead on the instructions of King Hamad who had called for citizens to be allowed to express themselves freely in a peaceful rally.

The violence came a day after mass crowds of people held an anti-regime demonstration outside the capital to demand an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.

The demonstrators on Friday also called for the immediate release of political prisoners and denounced the Bahraini dictatorship.

Bahraini forces attacked and surrounded several villages after hundreds of thousands of people came out to call for the downfall of the regime.

A recent probe by Amnesty International into the government's crackdown revealed that the regime forces in Bahrain have used "excessive and unnecessary force" against protesters.

Regime forces have martyred dozens of protesters in Bahrain since February 2011 when the revolution began in the Persian Gulf country.

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