The regime forces prevented the village’s Friday prayers leader from
going to Imam Sadiq Mosque. Worshippers said the prayers individually.
The
protesters demonstrated in the streets following the prayers. They also
chanted slogans against King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah.
It was the third time the Manama regime forces disrupted Friday prayers.
Diraz is the hometown of senior Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim.
On
June 20, Bahraini authorities stripped Sheikh Qassim of his
citizenship, less than a week after suspending al-Wefaq National Islamic
Society, the country’s main opposition bloc, and dissolving the Islamic
Enlightenment Institution founded by Qassim, and the opposition
al-Risala Islamic Association.
Bahrain, a close ally of the
United States in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime
protests since mid-February 2011. Scores of people have been killed and
hundreds of others wounded or detained in Manama’s ongoing crackdown.
