Protesters on Tuesday took to the streets in the town of Shahrakan, located on the outskirts of Manama, to condemn the killing of Ali Abdulghani, who died of his wounds in a hospital in the capital four days after he was reportedly overrun by a police vehicle.
The demonstrators blocked a road with a large waste drum which they set ablaze and hurled stones at security forces. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
According to witnesses and a report from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), police on March 31 stormed a property belonging to the victim's aunt while Abdulghani was present. Abdulghani fled the scene as the police attempted to arrest him.
Later in the day, he was seen and photographed while lying on the ground “with blood spilt from a serious head injury”. The victim was then transferred to the Bahrain Defense Forces Hospital.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry has made no comment about the incident yet.
Bahrain’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, has described the circumstances surrounding Abdulghani's death as “vague.”
Prominent opposition figures, including senior member of al-Wafaq Seyyed Jamil Kazim, issued a message, saying the teenager died as a result of the government’s insistence on using security measures against political demands by the public.
Earlier on Saturday, Bahraini people had once again poured into streets in various regions of the Persian Gulf country, a day before the start of Formula One Championship race, to voice their outrage at the Manama regime’s human rights violations and crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
During the protests, held in A'ali and Karzakan near the venue of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans.
They also carried placards saying that the Bahraini authorities are holding the race to cover up their human rights violations over the past five years since the popular uprising in 2011.
According to reports recently published by human rights groups monitoring Bahrain, the Al Khalifa regime forces have arrested 50 dissidents in the past two weeks.
Rights activists also say that the Formula One event is used as a political tool by Manama to make the world believe that the situation in the country is normal.
Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests against the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using heavy-handed measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations.
Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations.