Teenage boy killed as Bahraini security forces break up protest

Teenage boy killed as Bahraini security forces break up protest

2011-09-01 03:18:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANAMA (BNO NEWS) -- A teenage boy was killed on Wednesday morning after being hit by a tear-gas canister which was fired by Bahraini security forces trying to disperse a protest in the village of Sitra, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said.

14-year old Ali Jawad Ahmed was among a small crowd which had gathered overnight in the village of Sitra, an oil hub 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) south of the Bahraini capital of Manama.

The group was engaged in a peaceful anti-government march when security forces allegedly used 'excessive force' against the demonstrators, the activists said.

Isa Hassan, the teenager's uncle, said police officers had overreacted when confronted by the small group of protesters. He said security forces fired the tear gas canister from about 7 meters (21 feet) away, directly at the crowd. The boy was hit in the face by the canister.

The victim was taken immediately to the Health Center of Sitra where he died shortly afterward. The hospital was surrounded by security forces in order to prevent demonstrators from gatherings outside, the activists said.

The General Director of the Central Governorate Police told the state-run news agency BNA that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the incident. "There was no reported police action against law-breakers in Sitra at the time the boy's death was reported, except dispersing a small group of around 10 people at 1:15 a.m.," the police official said as quoted by BNA.

More than 30 people have been killed in Bahrain since anti-government demonstrations erupted in February, inspired by the popular uprisings which toppled the entrenched regimes of Tunisia and Egypt. The island's Shia majority is demanding political, social and economic reforms from the Sunni royal family.

In mid-March, Bahraini King Hamad Al Khalifa, with help from neighboring Sunni Gulf states, violently put down the country's peaceful protest movement 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.

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