Farfahinne

1. An Asian Worker Loses his Life in the Worst Deterioration of Ethnic Tension Yet
2. A growing sense of hatred towards all foreigners, due to the Bahraini authorities employment of foreign mercenaries to suppress protests and attack protestors.
3. The Bahraini authorities instigate 'clashes' with protestors, and later use 'clashes' as an excuse to increase repression, justify further repression, and as part of a smear campaign against opposition activists

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights note with great sorrow the news published in the local press on March 22 regarding the death of Sheikh Mohammed Riyad, a Pakistani national (58 years old). Mr. Riyad died on March 21 at Salmaniya hospital as a result of burns, which according to the Ministry of Interior, he suffered after the car he was driving was attacked with a Molotov cocktail on Maameer road on March 7.

Background
The assault that took the life of Sheikh Mohammed Riyad is part of a series of incidents of violence and clashes between the Special Security Forces - and an increasing number of young youth who operate at the entrances of the Shiite villages in various areas of Bahrain, where they burn tires and garbage containers, and some of them throw stones or sometimes Molotov cocktails at the Special Security Forces. This happens within the tension of the political and security conditions in Bahrain, and the increasing decline of rights and liberties, and an escalation in the systematic sectarian discrimination by the country against the Shiite sect.

The BCHR believes that Sheikh Mohammed Riyad may not have been targeted as an individual, but rather, was a victim of the security clashes, and the increased suspicion and hatred against foreigners - especially of the Pakistani nationality - who are used widely in the National Security apparatus and the Special Security Forces. The Special Forces have been in charge of besieging and suppressing Shiite villages and areas - which witness acts of protest - and which are intensively and arbitrarily attacked with massive quantities of tear gas, rubber bullets. Special Security Forces also regularly carry out the random pursuit of individuals inside the villages, often assaulting and beating them.

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