Human rights watchdogs expressed worries about the possibility that the regime hides the real reasons of the death of the five martyrs, Bahrain Mirror reported.
The Al-Bawaba news website said that Bahraini protesters have defied Manama’s warning against holding more public gatherings and stayed on the streets in a show of anger against the regime’s bloody crackdown on Diraz, the home village of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Issa Qassem.
In a different context, a Bahrain court sentenced 17 men to jail terms ranging from several years to life imprisonment on alleged charges of forming a ‘terrorist cell’.
Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis, calling on the al-Khalifa rulers to relinquish power.
In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, themselves repressive Arab regimes, were deployed to the country to assist Manama in its crackdown on protests. Hundreds of Bahraini activists have been imprisoned and suppressed.
On June 20, Bahraini authorities stripped Sheikh Qassim of his citizenship, less than a week after suspending the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, the country’s main opposition bloc, and dissolving the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by Qassim, and the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.
Over the past few weeks, demonstrators have held sit-in protests outside Sheikh Qassim’s home to denounce his citizenship removal.
Bahrain has also sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, another revered opposition cleric, to nine years in prison on charges of seeking regime change and collaborating with foreign powers, which he has denied.
Sheikh Salman was the secretary general of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, which was Bahrain’s main opposition bloc before being dissolved by the regime.
Things actually seem to be getting worse. The country’s only remotely critical newspaper, Al Wasat, which was shut down in 2011, has now been ordered by the government to close its online edition too after criticizing the executions.
On Tuesday, Bahraini regime forces stormed into the residence of Sheikh Qassem, the spiritual leader of the country’s Shiite majority in the village of Diraz, arresting everyone inside the house.
According to reports, at least five people were killed in the raid, and over 280 others were arrested.
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