Bahrain authorities are holding a total of 39 people picked up in police raids over the last three days following a week of anti-government demonstrations, a local human rights group reported on Sunday.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights produced a list of 39 people arrested by police since Thursday, including three picked up in raids in the early hours of the morning on Sunday.
Abdul-Jalil Khalil, a parliamentarian with the Shiite opposition Wefaq bloc, said four people were taken from their houses by police on Sunday in Sanabis, a village on the outskirts of the capital Manama that was under siege the day before. Khalil said security forces relaxed the siege on Sunday.
The reformist daily al-Wasat on Sunday printed the list of people the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said had been arrested, but it was unclear whether any of the four reported by Khalil were included.
While most of Bahrain's newspaper reported the string of protests, demonstrations and arrests over the past week, al-Wasat by far gave the most detailed coverage, showing photos of doors smashed in by police raiding parties and pictures of detainees, including one man who was allegedly stabbed while being arrested.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry on Sunday rejected claims that security forces used excessive force during their raids, saying "all arrests were made in accordance with the law and after gaining permits from the general prosecutor."
Al-Wasat also published a report of security forces attacking a mosque south of the capital on Friday with rubber bullets, including a photo allegedly showing some of the bullets inside the building's prayer area.
Commenting on the alleged attack, the Interior Ministry spokesman said "we reject such allegation and we respect the holiness of religious places, while those who chant political slogans inside mosques don't."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Protests erupted following the death of a Bahraini citizen, Ali Jassem, on Monday after he inhaled tear gas at a demonstration commemorating the social unrest of the 1990s.
Various demonstrations were held at his funeral and then at memorial services which resulted in severe clashes with security services and the burning of a police car.
A heavy police presence continued on Sunday in the streets of the island kingdom, especially around the northern Shiite villages where many of the protests have originated.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS