Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): "In that darkness, as gunfire rained on us, I tried to take cover behind a house wall. The moment another wave of gunfire hit us, he steadfastly continued to advance forward. I lost sight of him for a few seconds only, three or four perhaps, while I was taking cover. I looked back again and didn't find him. I looked closer to find him lying with his face to the ground. He fell on his face as he moved forward since he didn't back down," said one of the protestors who were camping at the Diraz open protest site. He was one of the friends of Mostafa Hamdan who was injured during the bloody raid Thursday at dawn on January 26, 2017.

As he recounted the incident, this protestor said he will continue stating what he witnessed only if his words are recorded. "I want this message to reach the authorities, and public opinion on a local and international level," he stressed.

He says: "Our message is clear. We are all Mostafa Hamdan. What I am stating literally represents the protestors camping outside Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim's house. We have readied ourselves for martyrdom. We shall not return home. We will face the gunfire with courage. We will not flee. We have decided to die in the defense of our leader Sheikh Isa Qassim. We will not forsake him until our last breath. Bear witnesses that we vowed to do so... We have written our wills and prepared our shrouds. The moment had come for our blood to speak. Sheikh Qassim has represented throughout his journey this nation's history of pride and dignity. Forsaking him means selling out this history. Never have we sold out our history and leaders. The Sheikh represents our pride. This is the moment of sacrifice, the moment to stand up against the oppressor once and for all."

He carries on detailing Mostafa Hamdan's injury: "At around 2:33 am of January 26, 2017, a number of civilian vehicles arrived, including a Mercedes and a minivan. They stopped for a while and then sneaked into two tents, located away from the protest site and used by some protestors as a smoking zone in order to not disturb the other non-smoking protestors. As they were approaching the tents, a number of Land Cruisers drove in. They attacked and initiated a fist fight with the protestors there. One of the protesters escaped the scene. Gunshots were heard. These civilian forces attempted to cuff another protestors who managed to flee as well after resisting the attackers. Meanwhile, a number of protestors were arrested."

"The protestors who were able to escape said that they noticed two things. They noticed that the attackers were of two kinds; the first were pro-government Bahrainis with a clear Bahraini accent, and the second group of attackers were white-skinned european-looking, who did not speak and had parts of their faces covered as the rest of the attackers."

He further stated that the protestors went into a state of alert. They distributed themselves into groups to confront the attackers. "I headed towards an alley but we ran into a group of security forces who were attacking us. We hurled stones at them but we were surprised to receive rounds of live gunfire. I saw with my own eyes some of them armed with handguns and two others wielding machine guns. We continued to throw stones at them and the gunfire continued as well. There was no way to back down. Mostafa was in front of me. He was in the frontline. He was fearless despite the heavy fire. A few minutes passed and we were shocked to see the attackers flustered. We continued to advance and hurl stones at them while chanting ‘Allah is Great'. They seemed frightened although we were about 50 meters away from them," he added.

"They ran as they fired heavily. I tried to take cover behind a wall with another protestor. I lost sight of Mostafa for a few seconds, three or four seconds only. I went back to the narrow alley and didn't see him standing in front of me. I looked closer and saw that he had fallen on his face. He fell forward because he did not back down. I rushed towards him and asked someone to help me carry him. I searched for bullet wounds on his body and didn't find any. His face was covered with blood and when we lifted him, he started to bleed heavily. His blood was gushing as we ran carrying him. Our clothes were drenched in his blood. We took him into one if the nearby houses and continued to look for the wound, and at last we saw the unexpected. The bullet had pierced his skull. Before taking him to the hospital, Mustafa opened his eyes twice but remained silent."

The protestor said that a young man drove Mostafa to the international hospital with his car but the hospital staff refused to admit him. The young man tried to convince them to treat him but to no avail. They told him that they couldn't do anything. They were afraid of the authorities' response. The young man told them to call an ambulance. One of the hospital staff called the Al-Salmaniya hospital ambulance service directorate but they refused to send an ambulance, so he tried to convince the physicians at the international hospital to allow a nurse to ride with them in his car to monitor Mostafa's condition on the way to the hospital. They also refused that request. All they did was check his pulse."

The young man drove Mostafa to the Salmaniya hospital yet when he arrived he was shocked to find 40 members of the security forces waiting for him. Mustafa was still bleeding. His blood stained the ground from the parking lot to resuscitation room and then to the operation room. He was bleeding heavily. One of the policemen ordered that the young man's sweater drenched in Mustafa's blood be confiscated attempting to cover up the crime. Mostafa's mother came to the hospital. They interrogated her and when she refused at first to cooperate since she wanted to check on Mostafa first, they threatened to hold her in one of the hospital rooms.

When the doctor supervising Mostafa's treatment told his mother that there is a "solid object" inside Mostafa's head, the officers yelled in the doctor's face and told him to say nothing about Mostafa's condition. They wanted to hide the fact that he was shot in the head.

"Mostafa rushed forward and did not think about backing down. I retreated a little bit but he was the one who got injured. We learned a lesson here. We shall no longer retreat. We will be like Mostafa. We will fall forward," stressed the protestor who witnessed the whole incident that night.

Arabic Version