Bahrain
Protests
A teenage
boy has died after being hit by a tear-gas canister fired by Bahraini security
forces trying to disperse a protest, activists say.
 |
| Small-scale clashes between security forces and demonstrators have become a near nightly event |
Ali Jawad
Ahmed, 14, was among a small crowd who had gathered overnight in the village of
Sitra, said the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.
The group
said security forces personnel had used "excessive force".
A police
official told the state news agency that the incident was being investigated
but gave no other details.
"There
was no reported police action against law-breakers... at the time the boy's
death was reported, except dispersing a small group of around 10 people at
01:15," BNA quoted the official as saying.
Isa Hassan,
the teenager's uncle, said police officers had overreacted when confronted by a
small group of protesters. He said the tear gas canister was fired from about
7m (21ft) away, directly at the crowd.
"They
are supposed to lob the canisters of gas, not shoot them at people," he
said at the funeral, according to the Associated Press. "Police used it as
a weapon."
One
activist told the BBC that Ahmed was hit in the face by the canister. The
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights published a photograph showing the boy
with blood seeping from his mouth.
More than
30 people have been killed in Bahrain since protests began in February, with
the island's Shia majority demanding political, social and economic reforms
from the Sunni royal family.
In
mid-March, King Hamad Al Khalifa called in troops from neighbouring Sunni Gulf
states to crush the dissent and imposed a state of emergency.
Small-scale
clashes between security forces and demonstrators have become a near nightly
event since emergency rule was lifted in June.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.