Bahrain: Massive Rally Against the Regime

“Down down with Hamad” chanted tens of thousands of people against Bahrain's King Hamad, as they occupied one of the main highways in Bahrain, nearby the Pearl Roundabout, the symbol of Bahrain's revolution.

This massive march on the Budaiya Highway on Friday 9 March, 2012, came to renew public demands against the tyranny of the Bahraini regime which has been implicated in the killings, arrests, corruption, oppression and discrimination of citizens, according to a fact-finding mission, called the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, commissioned by the Bahraini king to look into what happened during the first two months of the protests in Bahrain [PDF report].

Last March 2011, the Peninsula Shield Force troops entered Bahrain, led by Saudi Arabia, to repress protests and enact martial laws that led to the arrest of prominent opposition figures. Most of them were put on military trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, including human rights defender Abdulhadi Khawaja, In absentia, blogger Ali Abdulimam was also sentenced to 15 years in jail.

So far, there have been more than 70 people killed since the uprising - shot, tortured to death, run over by cars, or suffocated by the excessive use of tear gas. The way the regime keeps ignoring protestors' demands and international calls to release prisoners and start reform, has spurred protesters to keep on demonstrating and speaking up through social media.

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