Agencies
Anti-riot police and hundreds of demonstrators keeping up daily protests to demand the release of Bahrain’s main Shia opposition leader clashed yesterday in villages near Manama, witnesses said.
They said an unspecified number of arrests were made and people wounded as police fired buckshot and teargas to disperse the protests staged after weekly prayers in mosques.
The demonstrators, including women and children, carried portraits of jailed Al Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman and chanted slogans calling for his release.
Anti-riot police were deployed in force on an avenue which links several Shia villages to the west of the capital and manned checkpoints on main roads to prevent the protests from spilling over, witnesses said.
It was the sixth straight day of protests since Salman, 49, was arrested on Sunday and charged the next day with seeking to use force to change the regime.
Predominantly Shia Iran has joined calls for the immediate release of the main opposition leader in the kingdom.
And the United States has expressed deep concern about Salman’s detention, warning it could only inflame the persistent violence that has gripped the kingdom since 2011.
Bahrain’s Shura Council denounced what it called foreign double standards and interference yesterday.
The council said: “The double standards adopted by some countries and organisations do not help in combating terrorism and stopping violence for they threaten civil security and peace.”
“The irresponsible statements by some countries undermine relations with them and do not help in building trust,” the council, an advisory body to the government, added in its statement carried by the BNA state news agency.
Bahrain has been gripped by tension since 2011 protests led by Shias demanding reforms and a bigger role in running the country.
Prosecutors said on Thursday Sheikh Salman was being interrogated in connection with charges including spreading ideas that defy the regime and authorities.
They said they had shown him recordings of a speech he gave to his party’s general conference and a television interview in which he said that the opposition in Bahrain had received offers to emulate the Syrian opposition and take up arms, which it had refused.