Bahrain intensifying human rights abuses: Activist

The Al Khalifa regime has significantly intensified its crackdown on the ongoing anti-government movements in Bahrain over the past month, a Bahraini human rights activist tells Press TV. “For the past one month, we have seen a deteriorating situation especially with the human rights record,” said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei in a Friday interview. “We have recorded so many incidents of house raids, ongoing arrests on streets, checkpoints everywhere, so the situation more or less on daily basis has been deteriorating by all means,” he pointed out. Alwadaei also pointed to the continuation of “systematic torture” at state-run buildings, including the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) from which there have been numerous evidences of different torturing tactics such as hose beating, electric shocks and even sexual abuses. The Manama regime’s human rights record has come under scrutiny over its handling of anti-regime protests that erupted across the country in early 2011. Bahrainis demanded 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 brutal crackdown on popular protests. Manama also called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring states. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others arrested in the clampdown. On September 9, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that she was frustrated with reports of human rights violations in Bahrain.