Bahraini Authorities Target Husseini Rituals

By Staff

The authorities in Bahrain continued their attacks on the Husseini rituals as well as their restrictions on citizens participating in the Ashura ceremonies in several regions and towns.

On Thursday, armed forces and personnel in civilian clothes removed mourning flags and black banners in the areas of Al-Markh, Salmabad, Saar, Al-Ghuraifa, Barbar, Karzakan, Al-Malikiyah, Iskan Aali and Hamad Town as well as the towns of Abu Saiba, Al-Shakhoura and Sanabis.

In addition to this, forces led by executioner Turki Al-Majid prevented the start of the Salmabad procession under the pretext of hanging a banner with a picture of Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim. They took pictures of the participants in the Al-Markh procession in order to harass on them.

They also stormed Sanabis to remove Ashura manifestations. Meanwhile, vehicles belonging to the Interior Ministry and other civilian vehicles carrying personnel in civilian clothes roamed the streets around the Imam Rida [AS] obsequy, according to Rasd Network.

The Bahraini Al-Wefaq Society confirmed on its Twitter account that “the attacks on the Ashura manifestations are part of a series of sectarian persecution against Shia citizens”.

On Wednesday, July 26, 2023, the authorities released the young men they arrested from the Aali area, after the Interior Ministry ordered them to hand over mourning flags and black banners they had for the Ashura, as well as the equipment they used to install them.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, the Bahraini authorities attacked Ashura manifestations in the Aali area, where they removed the Husseini banners from the main street of the village, for the second day in a row, four days after they removed banners hung by citizens on the village roads to mark Ashura.