Police in Bahrain carried out a dawn raid Thursday against supporters of a Shia cleric on trial in the Sunni-ruled kingdom during which one man was shot and wounded, witnesses said.
Security forces intervened in the village of Diraz, west of the capital, where protesters have been staging sit-ins since authorities revoked Sheikh Isa Qassim’s citizenship in June.
He is accused of sowing sectarian divisions in the Shia-majority Gulf archipelago, home to the US Fifth Fleet.
A 21-year-old man was hospitalised with a bullet wound to his head after the raid, human rights campaigners said quoting a medical source.
Dozens of residents in Diraz later staged a protest chanting slogans hostile to the authorities, witnesses said.
The trial of the 75-year-old cleric on charges of illegal fund-raising and money laundering opened in July. A new hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Qassim has also been accused by the interior ministry of “serving foreign interests” -- an allusion to Shia-dominated Iran.
Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.
{{/usCountry}}Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.
{{/usCountry}}The head of the Shia opposition, Sheikh Ali Salman, was arrested in December 2014 and sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted of inciting hatred.