Bahraini regime forces detain 6 civilians with no charge: Activists

Activists say Bahraini forces have held six civilians, including a woman, without offering any legal justification for their detention as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its repressive measures and heavy-handed crackdown in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

Human rights activists, requesting anonymity, said Fawzia Mashallah had been kept in police custody over the past three days after regime troops raided her home in the Bilad al-Qadim suburb of the capital Manama, and took her to the Interior Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Directorate without providing any reasons, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported on Saturday.

The forces also arrested a young man, identified as Mohammed Ja’afar al-Jamri, in the northwestern village of Bani Jamrah.

Separately, officials detained Ibrahim Sabbat at Bahrain International Airport upon return from a vacation abroad.

Bahraini troops also made three separate arrests in the northwestern village of Diraz, situated some 12 kilometers west of Manama, as well as al-Dair village on the northern coast of Muharraq Island.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.

On March 5, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3.