Muscat: The peaceful protest peaked on Friday in Sohar, Salalah and Muscat as a large number of people joined in and even offered prayers at the protest venues.
On the other hand, government ordered an impartial, transparent and thorough inquiry, including autopsy of the first victim Abdullah Bin Ali Bin Mohammad Al Ghamlasi, with an announcement that the inquiry would be made public.
A congregation of over 2,000 people offered Friday prayers at the Globe Roundabout, where a much bigger tent was pitched to accommodate more people. "It was much more organised gathering and peaceful," an eyewitness told Gulf News from Sohar.
He added that roads, however, continued to be blocked, cutting off access to the roundabout or through it for vehicular traffic.
For a few hours on Friday afternoon, people of Sohar experienced difficult mobile phone and data connection but by evening 4pm it was back to normal.
The protesters also continued their sit-in outside the Shura office in Muscat as speakers took turn to air their views through a megaphone while volunteers marshalled the traffic throughout Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.
The protests in Salalah saw the number swell to over 8,000 as people offered Friday prayers at the Minister of State and Governor of Dhofar's Office parking area, which is now popularly called 'Freedom Square'.
Writing about the huge gathering in support of protesters in Salalah, Bolger Nadia, who writes under the name of Dhofari Gucci, wrote: "Despite the fact that there were thousands there, it was extremely quiet and peaceful. No violence. Just prayers."
She wrote that the mosques were deserted. "The sermon given at the square was different than the one from the mosques."
She further wrote: "I am very very very proud of the Dhofari people for their behaviour this past week."
She writes on her blog that there are a team of very well organised people, who are collecting donations, arranging meals, etc.
"They now have a stage, speakers system, etc. People give talks all evening."
She writes that the police have done nothing to break up the crowds.
"The crows have done nothing violent. They spend all day sitting and talking quietly on the ground."
The tense undercurrent in Ibri continued even as jewellers preferred to keep their shops shut in this town with a population of over 100,000 people.
On the other hand, hundreds of people pledged loyalty to Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed by marching through the streets of Manah, where the Omani monarch was at the Hisn Al Shumoukh on Thursday evening.
