UN experts urge Bahrain to end crackdown on Shia Muslim community

A number of United Nations-appointed independent experts have called on the Bahraini regime to halt its heavy-handed crackdown on the country’s Shia Muslim community, stressing that it is in violation of basic human rights in the tiny Persian Gulf island.

According to the reports, in a statement released on Tuesday, the UN specialists said the kingdom should stop “arbitrary” arrests and summons, and release those who put behind bars for exercising their rights.

They further called on Manama to “lift the restrictions on movement” imposed on Shia Muslim religious leaders and human rights campaigners.

"The intensified wave of arrests, detentions, summons, interrogations and criminal charges brought against numerous Shia Muslim religious scholars and poets, human rights defenders and peaceful dissidents is having a chilling effect on fundamental human rights," the statement read.

Pointing to the recent dissolution of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s main opposition group, as well as restrictions on the practice of religious rites, peaceful assemblies and Internet access, the UN specialists concluded that the “Shia Muslims are clearly being targeted” in the island state.

They further accused the Aal-e Khalifah minority regime of bringing a wide range of "groundless” charges against the Shias in a bid “to hide a deliberate targeting" of the majority religious community in the country.

Additionally, the experts expressed concern over the authorities’ practice of stripping Shia Muslim figures of their citizenship, saying, “People are being left stateless and are facing deportation from Bahrain.”

SS