Bahrainis rally to urge authorities to hand over protester’s body

Bahrainis have staged demonstrations to protest against the authorities’ refusal to hand over the body of a protester killed by regime forces last week.

Scores of Bahrainis took to the streets in Sanabis, Samaheej and Sitra on Tuesday to urge the authorities to hand over the body of Mahmood Isa Al Jaziri.

The 20-year-old protester was hit in the head by a tear gas canister on February 14 after security forces attacked anti-regime demonstrators in Nabi Saleh, south of Manama, as they were marking the second anniversary of the uprising.

According to Bahrain’s main opposition bloc al-Wefaq, Jaziri died in the hospital on February 22 after a week in a coma.

Bahraini authorities have so far made no comments on Jaziri’s death.

At least three Bahrainis, including a woman, were killed in Manama’s crackdown on protests, marking the second anniversary of the uprising in the Persian Gulf state.

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, demanding political reform 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 detained since the popular uprising in Bahrain began.

Protesters say they will continue holding anti-regime demonstrations until their demand for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.