Burning their boats, losing sight of the issues
Sandeep Singh Grewal
Contributor
A rally held by political societies near Bahrain Mall on the issue of naturalisation turned violent yesterday. Demonstrators had arrived in buses and cars and began to assemble near the mall. By noon a number of people had gathered. Many of them carried banner and placards calling for a stop to naturalisation.
The police had set up barricades to prevent them from approaching the road near Dana mall. Police Jeeps were stationed on the flyover to control the situation. But the rally turned violent when some of the protesters started to throw stones at the police. The latter had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd and one man collapsed due to suffocation. Protesters also damaged a police motorcycle and burned a wooden boat placed as a showpiece under the flyover in Seef. The police immediately extinguished the fire though by that time the fire brigade too had arrived on the scene.The head of the rally’s organising committee, Saeed Al Majid, said the Ministry of Interior had informed him that they would be changing the rally route as it would affect the traffic movement.
Burning their boats, losing sight of the issues
Sandeep Singh Grewal
Contributor
A rally held by political societies near Bahrain Mall on the issue of naturalisation turned violent yesterday. Demonstrators had arrived in buses and cars and began to assemble near the mall. By noon a number of people had gathered. Many of them carried banner and placards calling for a stop to naturalisation.
The police had set up barricades to prevent them from approaching the road near Dana mall. Police Jeeps were stationed on the flyover to control the situation. But the rally turned violent when some of the protesters started to throw stones at the police. The latter had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd and one man collapsed due to suffocation. Protesters also damaged a police motorcycle and burned a wooden boat placed as a showpiece under the flyover in Seef. The police immediately extinguished the fire though by that time the fire brigade too had arrived on the scene.The head of the rally’s organising committee, Saeed Al Majid, said the Ministry of Interior had informed him that they would be changing the rally route as it would affect the traffic movement.
The director-general of the Manama Public Security, Isa Abdulla Al Mussallam, said, “We permitted the rally with the condition that the route be changed to Avenue 28 from the Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman road to avoid traffic jam in the area. There was no point of preventing the rally in view of the freedom of expression and the right of the citizens to protest.”
The general secretary of Al Wefaq Society and opposition leader Shaikh Ali Salman said: “This was a peaceful rally and we followed all the legal procedures. The Ministry of Interior wanted us to change the route. But this is the usual route for rallies. The new law does not forbid anyone from taking out a rally along a public road.”He was also seen trying to calm down the supporters and asking them to leave. But they continued to throw stones at the police. No one was injured though a few people suffered from suffocation due to the tear gas.
Article from: Bahrain Tribune Newspaper
http://www.bahraintribune.com/PrintPage.asp
