Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The fifth day of the holy month of Muharram 1443 AH (Saturday, August 14, 2021) recorded a continuation of the violations committed by the forces of the Interior Ministry against the Shiite majority, holding events in most areas across Bahrain on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH).

The violations were as follows:

1- Summonses and arrests:

On Friday, two young men, Ali Mansour Al-Mallah and Muhammad Mahdi Daif from Karzakan, were arrested due to their participation in Ashura events. On Saturday, about 50 citizens of the Shiite majority were summoned to the Hamad Town Police Station (Roundabout 17) for interrogation over their participation in a mourning procession that was held in the area.

In a related context, the authorities released the two eulogy reciters, Mahmoud Al-Qallaf and Saleh Sahwan, after forcing them to pay a sum of money.

2- Attacks on Ashura manifestations:

For the fifth consecutive day, the security authorities, alongside municipality workers, continued their war against any forms of Ashura manifestations, removing and destroying dozens of Husseini flags and banners in the Musalla, Ras Al-Rumman, and Mahouz areas, according to activists.

3- Security deployment:

The Interior Ministry moved dozens of security vehicles (patrols), with a number of armored vehicles, to station at the entrances of a number of Shiite villages during religious events. Their presence was observed at the entrances, streets and alleys of the capital, Manama, Nuwaidrat, Ma'amir, A'ali, Samaheej and Abu Saiba.

4- Civilian-clad military forces inside Shiite villages:

In one of the most common provocations, the Ministry of Interior sent vehicles with civilian-clothed forces to Shiite villages, whose mission was to monitor mourners, photograph them, and sometimes stop and ask them for their IDs.

Their presence was documented in the streets of the capital, Manama, Al-Malikiyah and Maqabah, where they stopped dozens of citizens, interrogated them and photographed their identity cards near the starting point of the mourning procession. In Samaheej, they filmed the Zanjeer procession. They also appeared in Barbar near the Shuwaikh mourning hall in particular, and in Sanabis, where dozens of participants were stopped in the mourning processions and pictures were taken of their ID cards. A network, which specializes in monitoring raids, arrests and security presence, said that Sanabis had the lion's share of military deployments, pursuits and crackdown on the participants in Ashura events since the beginning of the Islamic month.

5- Direct threats:

The security services made direct calls with the heads of the Ma'tams (mourning halls) in the Musalla area, and threatened to take legal measures against them if they insisted on holding mourning processions.

Arabic Version