Press TV - A teenage boy shot and critically injured by Bahraini regime forces during a sit-in held in solidarity with prominent Shia cleric SheikhIsa Qassim nearly two months ago has died of his wounds, medics say.
Mustafa Hamdan succumbed to his injuriesat Salmaniya MedicalComplex in the capital Manama on Friday. Doctors at the public hospital told Hamdans family that the 17-year-old teenager had stopped responding to treatment since previous day, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.
Hamdan was struck in the head on January 26, when Al Khalifah regimes mercenaries attacked a sit-in near Sheikh Qassims residence in the northwestern village of Diraz, firing live bullets at unarmed protesters.
Doctors were unable todo anything about thebulletthat had lodged inside Hamdan'shead. Hewas leftclinically dead and could not be brought back to life.
People took to Diraz streets as soon as the news of the teenage protesters death broke. They held up pictures of Sheikh Qassim and carried banners in commemoration of Hamdan, vowing to continue their unwavering support for the top Shia cleric.
Similar protest rallies were held in Saar, Karbabad and Bilad al-Qadeem villages.
Al Khalifah regime forces clashed with protesters in Karbabad, a village located in northern Bahrain, which is the birthplace of the slain teenager.
Bahraini regime troops fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
On March 14, a Bahraini court adjourned until May 7 the trial of Sheikh Qassim.
The spiritual leader of Bahrains dissolved opposition bloc, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, was stripped of his nationality on June 20, 2016, over accusations that he usedhis position to serve foreign interests and promote sectarianism and violence.
The 77-year-old clergyman has denied the allegations, refused to be assigned a lawyer anddeclined to attend any of the trialsessions. Qassim faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="555"]
Bahraini demonstrators attend a protest against the revocation of the citizenship of top Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim near his house in the village of Diraz, west of Manama, on June 20, 2016. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]In addition to Sheikh Qassim, Bahraini authorities are also trying the clerics office head and staffer, Sheikh Hussein Mahrousand Mirza al-Dirazi, respectively.
The trio are accused of laundering money and raising funds without licenses in connection with the practice ofKhums -a religious tax which followers of Islam pay to their highest religious authorities for use in charities and other donations.
Anti-regime protests have been heldin Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.
Protestersare demanding that theAl Khalifahdynastyrelinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist Manamain its crackdown on peaceful protests. Since then, scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others have sustained injuries or been arrested.
