Bahraini protesters allege anti-Shiite plot, two activists held Fri Nov 17, 2:07 PM ET
Some 200 people rallied in Manama to demand a probe into an alleged plot by some figures in Bahrain’s Sunni-led government to rig upcoming elections and marginalize the Shiite majority.
Two activists of Haq, the mainly Shiite opposition group which called the protest, were arrested on the eve of the rally, the group said.
The protesters, gathered outside a mosque, chanted slogans demanding the resignation of the government and raised banners calling on authorities to come clean on the so-called “Bandargate” affair, an AFP correspondent reported.
Bahraini protesters allege anti-Shiite plot, two activists held Fri Nov 17, 2:07 PM ET
Some 200 people rallied in Manama to demand a probe into an alleged plot by some figures in Bahrain’s Sunni-led government to rig upcoming elections and marginalize the Shiite majority.
Two activists of Haq, the mainly Shiite opposition group which called the protest, were arrested on the eve of the rally, the group said.
The protesters, gathered outside a mosque, chanted slogans demanding the resignation of the government and raised banners calling on authorities to come clean on the so-called “Bandargate” affair, an AFP correspondent reported.
“We refuse the Iraqization of Bahrain,” read one banner, referring to the bloody Shiite-Sunni infighting in Iraq.
Riot police closed off roads leading to the mosque in the Ras al-Rumman district of northern Manama, forcing the protesters to call off plans for a march, but the rally passed off peacefully.
Haq, or Movement of Liberties and Democracy, said Thursday it had asked UN chief Kofi Annan to set up an inquiry into the alleged plot to rig the November 25 legislative elections to maintain Sunni domination of the Gulf country.
The group, which also includes some Sunni opposition figures, was referring to a controversial report by purported British spy Salah al-Bandar.
In the report, he claimed to have uncovered a secret organization operating within the government to “deprive an essential part of the population of this country of their rights” — an allusion to Bahrain’s Shiite majority.
Sudanese-born Bandar, who had worked as a consultant in a government department, was expelled from Bahrain in September.
“We want an inquiry into everything contained in the report … If the government has nothing to do with the (allegations) made in the report, let it say so,” Haq’s secretary general Hassan Mushaimaa told AFP.
Haq said authorities arrested two of its activists on Thursday, naming them as dentist Mohammed Said, one of the signatories of a recent petition to King Hamad demanding a probe into “Bandargate,” and Hussein Abdul Aziz al-Habshi.
An interior ministry official, Major Mohammed bin Dainah, confirmed the arrest of the two men and said they would appear before the public prosecutor within 48 hours.
The pair were detained for possessing unlicensed leaflets “containing inflammatory material and false information liable to disrupt public order and undermine the national interest,” he told AFP.
Bahrain, which was shaken by a wave of Shiite unrest in the 1990s, revived its elected parliament in 2002. Haq is boycotting next week’s polls.
