Dubai: Thousands of supporters of Bahrain’s largely Shiite opposition demonstrated peacefully on Friday near Manama, calling for democratic reform in the country, witnesses said.
Demonstrators, carrying the national flag, marched along a road linking several Shiite villages west of the capital, chanting slogans against the government and urging reforms.
The demonstration, held ahead of Bahrain’s National Day celebrations today, was called by opposition groups after a ban on organising protests was lifted earlier this week.
The opposition said afterwards that it “will not stop without a true democratic process that will end an era of injustice and tyranny.”
Last week, Bahrain’s crown prince made a renewed appeal for dialogue to end the political impasse, which was welcomed by the opposition, but there seems to be no end in sight to increasingly violent protests.
