Manama: Political and social divisions in Bahrain were back in focus on Thursday when the country presented two different sides.

In villages, clashes erupted between the police and rioters since early morning and one teenager was killed in Daih in the eastern outskirts of the capital Manama.

“Operations Room received call from SMC [Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country’s largest hospital] reporting an injured individual pronounced dead,” the interior ministry said on its Twitter account.

Al Wefaq, the largest opposition society, named the teenager as Hussain Al Jaziri and said that the 16-year-old boy was killed in Daih.

Tariq Al Hassan, the police chief, later said that several policemen were injured in the clashes and had to be taken to hospital.

“The worst clashes occurred in Daih where around 300 people at around 8 am attacked the security men stationed there to protect the area,” he said. “They initially fired shots in the air to disperse them, but the people continued to attack targeting the security men with iron rods, stones and Molotov cocktails. The security men were forced to deal with them and one of the people was hit,” he said.

Al Hassan said an investigation was launched and that several members of the unit involved in the incident would be quizzed.

“The public prosecution was informed about the death and it has opened an investigation.”

The police chief said he deplored the loss of life “as a result of the calls to involve people in acts of terror and in targeting security men.”

“I urge all citizens not to heed the calls to exploit this death to undermine public order and cause further loss of life and property,” Al Hassan said.

In its account of the day-long events, Al Wefaq said that demonstrations were staged in several areas of the country since early morning and that news of Hussain’s death had exacerbated emotions.

The society called for a massive demonstration on Friday afternoon and insisted on all people to take part.

The call is part of a campaign launched at the beginning of the month to mark the second anniversary of the events that unfolded in February 2011.

Demonstrations were held daily in anticipation of the weekend and the opposition also pushed for freezing financial and economic activities, including shopping, on Thursday.

The education ministry reported that several of its schools were targeted early on Thursday in “an aggressive assault on education institutions to hamper them from providing their services.”

“Several masked people stormed their way into schools for girls and for boys and forced the students out,” the ministry said in a statement emailed to Gulf News.

“They kept the students out and locked the school gates with chains. In other instances, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the girls’ middle school in Arad while the students were inside and in another assault, four masked men attacked the on-duty guard at another school, tore his clothes and stole his mobile phone.”

The ministry said that it condemned the “unlawful attacks and the blatant violations of schools.”

“The criminal attacks are unprecedented in their number and nature and they included locking school gates and forcing students not to attend classes,” the ministry said.

At the other end of the spectrum, thousands of Bahrainis celebrated with great fanfare the anniversary of the National Action Charter, the document that paved the way for political reforms following almost three decades of constitutional hiatus. The charter was approved by 98.4 of the voters on February 14, 2001.

The demonstrations and the celebrations occurred as a national dialogue to break a political deadlock was launched on Sunday with the participation of political societies, including the opposition, the parliament and the government.