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Three die
in Bahrain as police attack sleeping protesters
Thursday February 17, 2011 01:55:17 PM,
IANS
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Manama: Three people
in the Bahrain capital were killed in the early hours of Thursday
when police in riot gear lobbed teargas canisters and then stormed
a roundabout where protesters were sleeping.
The pre-dawn assault took place when the protesters were asleep at
Pearl Roundabout, which is the epicentre for demonstrators seeking
reform. Many of them had joined the protests Wednesday following
the funeral of an earlier victim.
The protests began in Bahrain this week following the ouster of
former president Hosny Mubarak in Egypt. The Egypt uprising not
only brought an end to Mubarak's 30-year rule, it also inspired
copy cat protests in Iran and Libya.
Police helicopters buzzed overhead early Thursday as the security
force dispersed the crowd and regained control of the area.
While DPA put the number of dead at three, other media reports
said that two people were killed in the police action.
Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights told Al
Jazeera that she has seen dozens of injured being carried into
emergency rooms at Salmaniya hospital, which is the main medical
facility here.
"People were attacked while they were sleeping. There was no
warning. And when they ran, the police attacked them from the
direction they fled to."
The Bahraini interior ministry said "security forces evacuated the
area of Pearl Roundabout from protesters, after trying all
opportunities for dialogue with them, in which some positively
responded and left quietly".
Ibrahim Sherif, of the Waad party, said police had acted without
any warning.
"Throughout the day there were rumours that we would have another
24 hours, but the attack has come without warning.
"You have hundreds of women and children already camping there.
People are sleeping in the tents (...) there is a dense fog of
tear gas, these people could be trapped there and inhaling this
tear gas," BBC quoted him as saying.
"We have two confirmed dead - one 65-year-old and another younger
person, a third is in critical condition," he said.
Witnesses told DPA that police closed down the area between the
square and Salamnyia
hospital and the atmosphere remained "very tense".
TV images showed police clearing the crowd of thousands of
protesters, many of them women and children.
Two of the three dead protesters, an elderly man and a younger man
whose bodies were at the Salamynia hospital, bore what appeared to
be gunshot wounds, witnesses said.
The king of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Wednesday
made an appearance on state television in which he condoled the
death of two protesters, as the country's main Shia opposition
group announced it was withdrawing from parliament.
Hamad expressed his condolences for "the deaths of two of our dear
sons" in a televised speech and said a committee would investigate
the killings.
"We will ask legislators to look into this issue and suggest
needed laws to resolve it," he said, adding that peaceful protests
were legal in the country.
The US said it was "very concerned" by recent violence in protests
in Bahrain, and urged all sides to exercise restraint.
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