(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - On Wednesday, clashes erupted between anti-government protesters and security forces in the country’s northeastern island village of Sitra.
The Bahrainis were reportedly protesting in solidarity with political prisoners in the Persian Gulf country.
Over the past months, the Bahraini regime has intensified its heavy-handed clampdown on activists and peaceful demonstrators in the country.
Bahraini regime forces raided 125 houses in November, arresting at least 82 people, said Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq on December 11.
The Al Khalifa regime is under fire for its brutal crackdown on rights activists and pro-democracy protesters.
On December 24, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights denounced the ruling Al Khalifa regime for arresting and torturing the youth and keeping them in detention for long periods.
In October, Philip Luther, the Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “The [Bahraini] authorities simply slap the label ‘terrorist’ on defendants and then subject them to all manner of violations to end up with a ‘confession.’”
Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following the regime’s brutal crackdown on popular protests.
Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising began in the Persian Gulf state.
Protesters say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demands for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to the rights violations are met.
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