Saturday 16^th January will be remembered as one of the days of  public fury, as Bahrainis adopted their methods of civil disobedience to express outrage against the Al Khalifa occupiers. Scores of youth braved the persistent repression of the army of mercenaries, went out to the streets, shouted anti-regime slogans and barricaded themselves behind columns of fires to avoid the aggression of the foreign-staffed riot police. Their fury was made worse by the Al Khalifa attacks on their religious symbols, congregation halls and banners. The mixture of political and religious repression being implemented by the Al Khalifa occupiers has aggravated the situation and forced Bahrainis to cry for help from the international community against the Al Khalifa junta.

First came the unprovoked attacks yesterday on mosques and Hussaini halls in Karzakkan in which the black banners were torn and the mosque was ransacked. Then came the people’s reaction to those crimes in the form of protests extending to most towns and villages of the country. In Duraz the youth went out to the streets in protest against the detention last week of four young men from the town. They are: Abbas Hassan Al Nama, 23, Jalal Hassa Al Nama, 20, Hassan Kadhem Hassan, 22 and Jaffar Mohammad Habib, 19. What made their arrest even more painful is the extent of torture they received during their arrest although they presented no resistance. They were beaten so severely that blood covered their clothes. It was a flagrant show of state terrorism. The protests by the  youth started from midnight Saturday and lasted two hours during which the riot police and Death Squads raided houses and attacked women and children. The youth of the town of Ma’amir started their protests at 2.30 AM Saturday and continued for almost an hour. At 2.00 AM the people of Muharraq went out in protest against the continued detention of Bahrainis. In the afternoon, other towns and villages joined the protest. In Sanabis fires were raging in several spots. The youth of Daih and Southern Sihla burnt tyres and bins in the main road. Death Squads rushed to the scenes and distinguished the fires. The people of Sanabis went out again after 7.00 pm burning tyres and bins. The road joining the main Budayya Road was closed until the fires were extinguished. Death Squads then started their frenzic attack on the people of these areas. More towns and villages then joined in the protests. The people of Karrana, Duraz, Karzakkan, Karbabad, Aali, Bilad Al Qadim, JidHafs and Daih took part in more protests to support their brothers in other areas. The situation was temporarily brought under the control of the occupiers only after special forces and soldiers were deployed in most areas. They used large amounts of chemical and tear gases, rubber bullets and other tools of repression against Bahrainis. Many Bahrainis suffered attacks of breathlessness and physical injuries. Some needed hospital treatment. The public outrage is unlikely to go away as long as the political prisoners remain behind bars and the country is run by a regime of occupation and aggression. Last night, the houses of Marwazan and Sanabis were attacked with more chemical and tear gases.

The Al Khalifa occupiers have maintained an iron fist policy against Bahrainis who have suffered immensely for decades under a regime that insists on ruling them with the mentality of occupation. Few days ago two human rights activists on a discreet visit to the country to assess the extent of the human rights abuses were severely reprimanded by undercover agents of the much revered security apparatus. They were meeting a senior human rights activist in the lobby of a hotel. He was under surveillance for his work to expose those abuses and has thus become a target for the ruling junta. The two men, believed to be from Front Line (which defends human rights activists) were talking to Nabil Rajab, the President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights when they were approached by several members of the Death Squads. They were threatened and received verbal abuse for not contacting the torture apparatus to “arrange” who they should meet about human rights situation in Bahrain. There is mounting fear for the safety of activists such as Nabil Rajab and other political figures who have refused to acquiesce in the policies of occupation being implemented relentlessly by the ruler and his clique.

Bahrain Freedom Movement

17^th January 2010