Asia

Home page

Asia

The king must go, Bahraini mourners say

26 February 2012 02:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Bahraini mourners attending the funeral of a woman who died due to tear gas inhalation fired by Saudi-backed security forces have called for the ouster of the king and the Al Khalifa regime, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The 68-year-old woman, who died after regime forces fired tear gas at her house in Bilad al-Qadim, was one of the many victims of the Saudi-backed crackdown on demonstrators over the past year.

Meanwhile, on Saturday anti-regime protesters blocked major highways and streets and set tires ablaze in order to cause traffic jams to raise awareness and show solidarity with a detained human rights activist.

The campaign, dubbed Mourning Sky Two, was organized by the February 14 Youth Coalition to support jailed activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, who is serving a life sentence. Khawaja has been on a hunger strike for two weeks.

The February 14 Youth Coalition says the action was also taken in memory of Hussain al-Bakali who was martyred during the revolution.

In a popular revolution, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging demonstrations in Bahrain since February 2011, demanding that the Al Khalifa dynasty relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed troops to the Persian Gulf kingdom at Manama’s request to help Bahraini security forces’ efforts to crush the nationwide protests.

Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protests in Bahrain -- a longtime ally of the United States and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.