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Bahraini regime ready to commit genocide: Activist

Wednesday, 23 November 2016 4:14 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 23 November 2016 4:20 PM ]

Bahraini demonstrators attend a protest against the revocation of the citizenship of top Bahraini Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassim (portrait), on June 20, 2016 near Qassim's house in the village of Diraz, west of Manama. (Photo by AFP)

Bahraini people have held protest rallies across the tiny Persian Gulf country to show their support for prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassim, who was scheduled to stand for trial on Wednesday, but the trial was later adjourned to December 4. Clashes broke out in Akr, where security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to disperse the protesters.

Saeed Shehabi, with the Bahrain Freedom Movement, told Press TV’s Top 5 that the regime in Manama has reached to the point that it could carry out genocide to avoid relinquishing power.

“The regime is ready to go to the extent of genocide and bringing foreigner people to replace the natives. It has done in the past and is still doing it,” Shehabi warned.

The activist believes that either the Bahraini people or the Al Khalifah regime would “remain” in the country at the end of the crackdown, “unless there is a total genocide of the people.”

He added that “the people will prevail and the regime will go,” because Manama is facing a fierce resistance from the people who refuse to bow to the regime’s pressures.

Referring to the Wednesday protests across Bahrain, he noted that the protesters want to show loyalty to Sheikh Qassim as well as to express resentment to the Al Khalifah regime.

According to Shehabi, the regime is fearful of the people and the consequences of taking harsh stance against the prominent sheikh.

The Al Khalifah regime has adjourned the trial of Sheikh Qassim several times to take an action based on “regional developments,” he said, adding that the regime is “weak” without the support of the British and Saudi governments.

The Bahraini regime stripped the prominent cleric of his citizenship under the unfounded charges of illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism while the Shia cleric has called for reforms through non-violent protests since the day one of the uprising in Bahrain.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.

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