MANAMA – Protesters blocked off a main thoroughfare to the Bahrain Financial Harbour, a key business district in the Gulf Arab banking centre, overwhelming riot police who fired thick clouds of tear gas and water cannon.
Thousands of youths ran across the King Faisal Highway as police backed away in the face of hundreds of protesters who had gathered near the Pearl roundabout, the focal point of weeks of demonstrations on the small Gulf island. The government said in a statement that it had moved to disperse 350 protesters at about 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) after a group attacked unarmed police – one policeman was stabbed and another sustained head a wound.
“The Ministry of Interior is currently undergoing operations to reopen the King Faisal Highway and advised all protestors to return to the Pearl roundabout for their own safety,” it said.
A Western banker who declined to give his name said the protesters had stopped him from entering the Financial Harbour: “They didn’t let me through and they were very aggressive. This is not peaceful any more. It’s time for police to stop this.”
Bahrain has been gripped by its worst unrest since the 1990s after protesters took to the streets last month, inspired by uprisings that toppled the leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
The kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has seen weeks of rallies by its disgruntled Shi’ite Muslim majority, which says it is discriminated against by the Sunni al-Khalifa ruling family. Security forces killed seven people early in the protests but subsequent rallies have been mainly peaceful.
OPPOSITION DIVISIONS: An opposition activist who is part of a bloc of six moderate groups said the Financial Harbour protest was a step too far. “It was a mistake to go to the Financial Harbour. There is enough room in the square for protests,” he said, declining to give his name. “It was a small group and it’s not popular, the consensus was on the square.” Thousands of the nascent Feb. 14 youth movement still occupy Manama’s Pearl roundabout, and have organised daily protests.
