Bahrain to Tighten Security ahead of Polls
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Bahraini local police official unveiled plans for tightened security and an increase in the number of patrol units in his province ahead of the next Saturday’s parliamentary election.
The number of military and non-military patrol units as well as the checkpoints will increase all over Bahrain’s al-Muharraq province as the government prepares to hold parliamentary election on November 22, provincial police chief Zuhair Rashed al-Absi was quoted as saying by Voice of Manama (Sawt al-Manama).
He said the security forces will be on patrol around the clock across al-Muharraq to identify and confiscate anything that might be used by “rioters”.
While Bahrain’s Al Khalifa ruling family plans to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, the Bahraini people have held protests across the country calling for the boycott of the polls.
The polls will be the first since protests broke out in the Arab country more than three years ago.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to step down from power. The protesters have also slammed the Manama regime’s arrest and torture of political activists.
Many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
