Bahrainis protest killing of teenage boy

Bahrainis have held protests in 50 spots across the Persian Gulf sheikhdom to show their anger with the killing by security forces of a teenage boy. Hussein al-Jaziri, 16, was shot dead in Thursday clashes with the Manama regime forces during a demonstration in the Daih village near the capital Manama to mark the second anniversary of the uprising against the Al Khalifa. Bahrain’s opposition groups called for nationwide protest rallies and strikes on Thursday and Friday to mark the anniversary of the popular uprising. Shops had closed across Bahrain since Wednesday, ahead of the uprising anniversary demonstrations. On Thursday, Amnesty International called for the release of more than two dozens of Bahraini human rights activists held in jails across Bahrain. “It's time that people detained simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression be released and for the harassment of other activists to desist,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program deputy director, was quoted as saying. Many rights activists in Bahrain are serving time, some even life terms, for expressing their anti-government views on social media or in street protests. Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, demanding political reform and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its crackdown on popular protests. Bahrainis say they will continue holding demonstrations until their demands for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.