82 arrested in November: Bahrain’s al-Wefaq

Bahrain’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, says Bahraini forces have arrested at least 82 people over the past month as the Al Khalifa regime steps up its crackdown on dissent.

In a report released on Wednesday, the Liberties and Civil Rights Unit of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society also said that women and children were among those arrested in November.

The regime forces also raided 125 houses during the mentioned period, it said, adding that several people were tortured by the forces.

“There has been a continued deterioration in the general human rights situation, focusing on arbitrary arrests, house raids and other violations that the country has experienced regularly for 3 years,” the report noted.

The Al Kahlifa regime is under fire for its brutal crackdown on rights activists and pro-democracy protesters.

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’.”

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 detained since the popular uprising started in the kingdom.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

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