Rights group raps Bahrain regime over youth arrests

A human rights group in Bahrain denounced the ruling Al Khalifa regime for arresting and torturing the youth and keeping them in detention for long periods. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said in a statement issued on Tuesday that the security forces recently arrested two teenagers named Tamim Majeed and Hashem Alawi, press tv reported. It said the police have held them in detention for nearly a week under the pretext of carrying out interrogation. The rights body also accused Manama of intentionally targeting the children and violently attacking them on the streets. It said that the regime forces have arrested more than 120 children over the past weeks. Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa ruling family to step down. One month later, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government to crush the peaceful protests. According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the Saudi-backed crackdown. In October 2013, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, "The (Bahraini) authorities simply slap the label 'terrorist' on defendants and then subject them to all manner of violations to end up with a 'confession'." Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters. Protesters say they will continue to hold anti-regime demonstrations until their demands for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.