Anti-regime demos held in Bahrain

Bahraini people have held massive protest rallies across the country to show their solidarity with those killed or arrested during the uprising against the ruling Al Khalifa regime.

According to reports, anti-regime protesters took to the streets in the country’s northeastern island of Sitra and the western village of Shahrakan on Thursday, calling on the Manama regime to step down.

In a similar move, Bahraini demonstrators staged a rally, dubbed “our nation declared unity,” in Jidd Hafs, a western suburb of the capital, Manama.

Reports also say clashes broke out between the protesters and security forces, as riot police used teargas to break up an anti-regime demonstration in the village of Nuwaidrat, close to Sitra.

Over the past months, the Bahraini regime has intensified its heavy-handed clampdown on activists and peaceful demonstrators in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

On December 11, Bahrain’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, said Bahraini regime forces raided 125 houses, arresting at least 82 people and torturing several people in November.

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more have been detained since the beginning of the popular uprising.

In October, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “The [Bahraini] authorities simply slap the label ‘terrorist’ on defendants and then subject them to all manner of violations to end up with a ‘confession’.”