Manama: Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s interior minister, on Tuesday gave the first official figures about the casualties in the unrest that has gripped the country.
Addressing a parliamentary session, Shaikh Rashid said that 24 people were killed in Bahrain, including “four policemen, seven innocent civilians and 13 people who took part in violence and vandalism.”
The list of the wounded includes 391 policemen and 56 Bahraini and foreign civilians, while four policemen were kidnapped and tortured, the minister told the lawmakers present at the weekly session.
The minister said that Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain’s largest hospital, had been turned into a hotbed for kidnappings and torture.
“What happened at the hospital cannot be condoned by any person regardless of his or religious or creed,’ Shaikh Rashid said.
“The hospital was for one month under the control of outlaws who held workers there and treated patients atrociously. They forged documents and the security forces had to deploy tremendous efforts to recover this vital facility and it is now operating normally,” he said.
According to the minister, the events in Bahrain were linked to foreign interference.
“The positions and statements by some Iranian officials and the claims made by the secretary-general of Hezbollah as well as the reports of their satellite channels inciting violence, spreading rumours and allegations and calling for chaos, the occupation of hospitals, the setting up of tents, the barricades, putting the TV station, vital installation and government buildings under siege, attacking homes and splitting work among cells are the very methods used by Hezbollah,” he said.
“We are now investigating all the issues and there is an intelligence link. We will reveal all this later,” the minister said.
