Police forces in Bahrain have used tear gas and pellet guns to disperse dozens of anti-government protesters across the Persian Gulf country, inflicting injuries to several.
The protesting rallies were held on Sunday in a number of villages across the country, including Diraz, Sitra, Bani Jamrah, Sehla, Nabih Saleh, Abu Saiba, Shakhurah and Ma'ameer, to condemn the ruling Al Khalifah regime’s move in barring the families of three recently-killed activists from taking part in their funerals.
The three young pro-democracy activists, 29-year-old Rida al-Ghisra, Mahmoud Yahya, 22, and 35-year-old Mostafa Abedali, were all shot dead by regime forces off Khalifah Bin Salman Port, east of the capital Manama, in early hours of Thursday.
The protesters carried banners and photos of the trio and shouted slogans against Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah. They held the king fully responsible for the killings and expressed their solidarity with the families of the deceased.
The Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported that the fresh rounds of protest rallies came hours after the regime forces buried the bodies of the trio at a cemetery in Manama under tough security measures, a move that sparked widespread outrage among Bahraini people, particularly the families and relatives of the three killed activists.
Other reports said that the Bahraini police had summoned the families of the trio on Sunday morning and detained two people from each family to witness the burial of their respective member. The police had particularly banned mothers of the trio from attending the funeral. The security forces also had threatened mourners approaching the cemetery with live fire.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday that authorities had killed three people and arrested seven others during an operation to apprehend fugitives following the January 1 storming of Jaw prison.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in mid-February 2011. They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and let a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.
Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its brutal crackdown.
Scores of people have lost their lives and many others got arrested as a result of the crackdown.
