Bahrain, March 18: Thousands of Bahraini Shiites today defied martial law to renew their pro-democracy protests, as they gathered after prayers and to bury a victim of the security forces’ bloody crackdown.
“We sacrifice blood and soul for Bahrain,” they chanted, alongside calls for restraint and non-violence in the face of alleged crimes against international law committed by the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s police and military.
Others chanted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) and “we will not be humiliated” as they rallied in the village of Diraz, just outside the capital Manama, after Friday prayers.
Thousands had gathered to listen to a sermon by Sheikh Issa Qassem, Bahrain’s senior Shiite cleric, before the demonstration began.
People demanding rights and reform “do not believe in violence that authorities are trying to push them to,” Qassem said in the sermon.
“The peaceful approach has been our choice since day one,” he said.
As buses packed with security personnel arrived at the scene, the crowd set off for the nearby village of Sitra where the funeral was being held of a young unemployed man killed in clashes with police on Tuesday.
Relatives said Ahmed Farhan, 28, died instantly when he was shot in the head from a helicopter shortly after the US-backed government declared martial law in a bid to put down a month of Shiite-led unrest.
Pictures shown to AFP by doctors who attended to Farhan showed his head had been blown apart.
One of Farhan’s cousins told AFP his funeral would go ahead despite a ban on all public gatherings and the authorities’ initial reluctance to release his body from Manama’s main hospital, which has been taken over the security forces.
“We’re not scared — every drop of blood that is shed emboldens us. If we were scared we wouldn’t have left our houses,” she said.
The country’s Shiite-led opposition had called for peaceful protests on Friday “within the praying areas” rather than on the streets, and for sit-ins tomorrow.
The protests are the first since security forces firing tear gas and shotguns assaulted a month-old pro-democracy sit-in at Manama’s Pearl Square on Wednesday, killing three.
Bahraini police have been reinforced with more than 1,000 armoured troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, but the foreign forces have kept a low profile.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called King Hamad late Thursday to warn the crackdown might be breaking international law, after the world body’s human rights chief cited “credible” reports of “shocking and illegal” abuses.
–PTI