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Al Khalifa regime planning to kidnap Sheikh Isa Qassim: Pundit

This file photo taken on May 17, 2013 shows Bahraini top Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim giving a speech to worshipers during the Friday prayers at a mosque in the village of Diraz, west of the capital Manama. (Photo by AFP)

The deployment of lots of Bahraini and Saudi armed forces around the hometown village of Sheikh Isa Qassim indicates that the Al Khalifa regime is going to abduct top Bahraini cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim, said Jalal Fairooz former Bahraini legislator from London on Tuesday.

The Bahraini and Saudi security forces have set up barbed wires around Diraz, west of the capital Manama, turned the village into a prison and stopped the entry of food and drink into it in a bid to put more pressure on the opposition, Fairooz told Press TV.

The Bahraini authorities also resorted to cutting off internet access in Diraz to halt the communications between the protesters and the outside world; however, the opposition uses other technologies to inform people around the globe of the regime’s atrocities, the former lawmaker added.

The Al Khalifa regime announced on June 20 the citizenship revocation of Sheikh Isa Qassim. The move prompted huge criticism at domestic and international levels. The top Bahraini clergyman and other opposition figures have been accused of attempting to overthrow the Manama regime, but the dissidents insist on the non-violent nature of their protests to bring reforms to Bahrain.

Fairooz further said the situation in Bahrain is getting worse and the regime is just trying to get some support from countries like Mozambique, Comoros and other states to show that Manama can control the security situation of the tiny Persian Gulf nation.

The Bahraini regime has intensified the crackdown on the opposition, attacked houses and families of protesters, sentenced five Shia Muslims to prison and revoked their citizenship in recent days, he noted.

Al Khalifa is trying to put the blame of the unrest in this country on other states like Iran, he added.

He also warned that since the Bahraini government has some supporters among the Western governments; it continues atrocities against the people of Bahrain.

Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations on an almost daily basis in Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifah family to relinquish power. The Al Khalifah regime is engaged in a harsh crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against the country's Shia majority.


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