Bahraini Shia Under Severe Pressure, Police Tightens Security Ahead of Protests

14 February, 2011 11:25

Bahraini Shia Under Severe Pressure, Police Tightens Security Ahead of Protests

Bahraini security forces stepped up their presence across the capital, and in the Shiite Muslim villages, ahead of demonstrations The Day of Rage called for Monday by the country’s opposition.

Protests in some Shiite villages started as early as after morning prayers on Monday, eyewitnesses said. Checkpoints sealed off villages, while police units patrolled shopping malls and other public areas Sunday.

Ealier,

Bahraini forces have shot and injured at least six people attending a wedding party before a day of anti-government rallies dubbed The Day of Rage.

The shooting occurred in the Shia village of Karzakan, northwest of the capital, Manama, on Sunday evening.

Among those injured is a 21-year-old man, who was shot at close range in the leg and groin area. He is in a critical condition, Financial Times quoted witnesses as saying.

They said that the security forces argued with those attending the wedding ceremony and then just barged into the building and opened fire. Bahrain is a small island kingdom, with little oil wealth, where Wahhabi rulers have struggled for years with Shiite population. In recent days, the Shiite-led opposition has calls for political reform.

Bahrain is of particular strategic important to the U.S. It’s home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, the American naval command in charge of patrolling the Persian Gulf and the surrounding region.

At the Pearl roundabout in Manama, cited by protesters as a possible place of protest, police manned each corner in a show of force.

In the Shiite village of Sitra, a few miles from the capital, armed riot police patrolled networks of side streets. Local men, women and children marched to protest immediately after morning prayers but were blocked before they reached a nearby highway, eye witnesses said.

Those who refused to disperse were shot at with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets, with some exhibiting injuries, witnesses said.

Jafer Hassan, a 25-year-old man from Sitra, showed a wound on his leg he claimed was from a rubber bullet. “The police started shooting and I was hit…. But I will protest again this afternoon.”

Bahraini authorities have said that security forces were only using proportionate force in skirmishes that started Sunday.

Abdul Wahab Hussain, a prominent opposition figure, attended the protest Monday then retreated to his house in Sitra, where he received locals in a room covered in posters of jailed activists.

“The number of riot police is huge, but we have shown using violence against us will only make us stronger… This is just the beginningâ€”in the evening it will be in all areas of Bahrain,” he said.