Bahrain police ‘raid home of top Shia cleric’
Security forces search house of Sheikh Issa Qassem, the spiritual leader of al-Wefaq, the Shia opposition group says.
Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq has said that security forces have raided the home of the kingdom’s most prominent Shia cleric.
The house of Sheikh Isa Qassim, in the mostly Shia village of Diraz, west of the capital Manama, was searched on Tuesday, the group said.
Al-Wefaq called the search of the house of Qassim, the spiritual leader of the Shia oppositon group, a “provocative and irrational step”.
On its Twitter feed, Bahrain’s interior ministry said police searched a house in Diraz after receiving residents’ permission as part of a search for a bombing suspect. It did not mention the cleric by name.
According to Iran’s state-run Press TV, Tehran has strongly condemned the search, describing it as an “indiscreet action”.
“Desecration of religious symbols and insult to popular religious leaders and scholars indicate the Bahraini government’s bankrupt security and tribal approaches in dealing with peaceful protests by the country’s people,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, was quoted as saying on Tuesday.