Bahrain’s interior ministry says a member of security forces has been killed and two others have been wounded after a blast in Diraz, the besieged home village of Shia-Muslim spiritual leader Ayatollah Sheikh Issa al-Qassem.
The ministry said on its Twitter account on Sunday that “relevant procedures” were being taken following the explosion, which it blamed on “terrorists”.
The regime forces have been for weeks heavily deploying in the area, with residents are being prevented from moving but through checkpoints.
Such alleged attacks repeatedly take place in obscure conditions without conducting transparent probe into such incidents by the Bahraini regime. Pro-democracy activists accuse the regime of plotting such attacks in a bid to blame the peaceful opposition for.
On May 23, Bahraini forces carried out a heavy-handed raid against the village, killing five people who were defending Sheikh Qassem’s house. More 280 were arrested in the crackdown which ended by storming the house of the Shia leader, who has proven a major source of inspiration for the country’s peaceful protests.
Earlier in May, a Bahraini court convicted Qassem of illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years. It also ordered him to pay $265,266 in fines. The charges emanate from the collection of an Islamic donation called Khums, which in Shia Islam is gathered and spent by a senior cleric in the interests of the needy.
The authorities had already stripped Sheikh Qassem of his citizenship last year.
Source: Websites
