Two protesters were killed in overnight clashes with police following the arrest of a prominent Shia cleric, activists said on Monday, raising fears of a new wave of unrest in the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s east.
Akhbar Shakuri and Mohammed Filfel, both Shia, died and a dozen other protesters were wounded during the clashes that erupted when police opened fire to disperse a demonstration against the arrest of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, said the activists.
The violence occurred in Riyadh Street, the main artery of Qatif city in Eastern Province, they said. The reports could not be independently verified. The Interior Ministry described Nimr as an “instigator of sedition” as it announced that he was arrested at Al-Awamiya in Eastern Province on Sunday, after being wounded in the leg while putting up resistance. He was transferred to hospital and was due to be interrogated, ministry spokesman Mansur Turki said, cited by the official SPA news agency.
“Security forces will not tolerate instigators of sedition who have offended their society and homeland, making of themselves tools in the hands of the nation’s enemies,” Turki said, apparently referring to the Sunni-dominated kingdom’s main regional rival Iran. The reported deaths come after Amnesty International said in May that seven people had been killed and a number of others injured in clashes between the authorities and protesters in the country’s Shiite-populated region since November.
Nimr’s arrest came 10 days after he had said he was confident that his arrest or killing would be a “motivation” for protests to reignite in the Eastern Province, during a speech at a mosque in Al-Awamiya. He is considered one of the main proponents of social unrest in the region, where demonstrations first took place in February 2011 after an outbreak of violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the holy city of Madina. The protests escalated after the kingdom led a force of Gulf troops into neighbouring Bahrain to help crush a month-long Shiite-led uprising against the country’s Sunni monarchy.
Small groups of Shias in Qatif celebrated last month the death of Saudi crown prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the country’s iron-fisted interior minister, according to videos posted on YouTube. Nimr was also seen in another video making a fiery speech in which he rejoiced at the death of Nayef, who served as interior minister for decades. The 53-year-old cleric had called in 2009 for separating the Eastern Province’s Shia-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates from Saudi Arabia and uniting them with Shia-majority Bahrain.
Now America is posing its nose in the internal affairs of Saudi Kingdom.America is willing to disturb the peaceful atomsphere in every muslim counrty.Sheat on american Gates.
Americans sure instigate such acitivies too but its not always them. We have many morons in this part of the world too
KSA is not a Sunni Kingdom. It ruled by a cult supported by zionists!!
We are going far and far from the techings of Quran and Sunah thats why going towards decline day by day .There is a great Need to unite at the Teachings of Quran And Sunah if we want to survive as an honourable nation.
Why is the minority trying to impose it's will upon the others, specially here in Pakistan and Afghanistan! What I mean we are amongst the 36 percent Muslims that follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, the Maliki form 23 percent and recently in Timbuktu and adjoining areas they too were attacked by members of this minority cult calling themselves Salafist! The Shafi comprise of 15 percent, followed by Jafaria 22 percent.
Which leaves the Hanbali at 4 percent and their ilk need to stay in their place. Our problem in this region that today we see as AfPak war is all due to Wahabism an offshoot of Hanbali.Being fully exploited by those with Vested Interest from the West and those who want the balkanization of Pakistan.
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