Bahrain police fire on protesters

Bahrain’s media, however, described the protests as “violent” and reported that the police were now searching for “agitators”.

 

In an interview with the Gulf Daily News, published on Sunday, Captain Rashid Bu Najma, an official from the interior ministry’s legal affairs department, said the protesters “used Molotov cocktails, sharp sticks, sling shots and even golf balls which can kill”.

 

 

Residents from the mainly Shia village of al-Malkiyah, west of the capital Manama, burnt tyres and some carried banners reading “Bahrain’s lands are not for sale”.

 

Bu Najma was reported as saying: “The tyres they burn are dangerous as well and produce noxious gases that can harm. In turn, the police use tear gas that is an internationally accepted tool to deal with violent protests.”

 

The demonstrators were protesting against the construction of a wall along the village’s shoreline.

 

The 500-metre-long concrete wall was built two years ago on the orders of Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Salman al-Khalifa, a cousin of Bahrain’s king, allegedly in an attempt to claim the walled-off stretch of land as his property.

 

The wall has denied villagers, many of whom are fishermen, access to the seafront.

 

Jawad Fairoz, a Shia politician, who was also at the protest, condemned the police action and stressed that the demonstrators had obtained permission for the rally.