Hunger strike among 400 Bahraini prisoners has entered its second day, the country’s main opposition bloc says.
The al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said on its Twitter page that families of the prisoners, jailed in Jo Prison in the southern part of the country, called on the International Red Cross and human rights organizations to take measures against the Bahraini regime and stop "the violations against their sons," the Middle East Monitor publication reported on Saturday.
Wefaq said a number of the inmates “passed out” after they were beaten and insulted, adding, the heads of some others were shaved as a sign of "humiliation," and "religious figures were insulted before them."
Concerns grew among the families particularly after they were not allowed to visit their imprisoned sons.
According to Wefaq, some 1,500 inmates were "mistreated," were at the central prison, where the Al Khalifa regime holds activists on political and security charges.
Bahraini interior ministry rejected the allegations, saying, “The prison administration deals with detainees based on the systems and regulations applied in the country."
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.
According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.
Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.
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