Bahraini Protesters to Stage World Largest Hunger Strike

Bahraini anti-government protesters will begin the world’s largest joint hunger strike to show their anger with the regime’s crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.

“I am on hunger strike to demand the release of innocent detainees and stop human rights abuse in Bahrain,” said Aayat Al Nasheet, along with several youth, on their recently launched website, Xinhua reported late Sunday.

The organizers have called on all Bahrainis around the world to begin a hunger strike from Monday, in protest against the regime’s brutalities against the opposition.

The move was inspired by the rights activist — Zainab al-Khawaja — who has been on a hunger strike over the past six days in protest against the detention of several of her relatives, including her father and husband.

Due to ill health, she was hospitalized on Sunday.

Her father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who is a prominent human rights activist and former president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was arrested on April 9, at 3 a.m. local time.

Masked officers burst into his house and assaulted him and his son-in-law, Mohammed Al-Masqati, according to family members and human rights activists.

Human Rights Watch says more than 400 opposition activists and protesters have been arrested in recent weeks.