Page 199 - Begrave Thesis_Neat

regulations official to a vegetable market seller who had set up an unlicensed stall

on the roadway. The official told the seller to remove his products and an argument

developed between the two. A scuffle ensued between a policeman, who was at the

scene, and the vegetable seller and, as always, crowds gathered.

The fracas turned into a large-scale brawl and police officers stationed at the

market sought refuge in the Municipality’s offices. The mob pursued the fleeing

policemen and besieged them. The police from inside and outside the building

fought hard to disband the angry mob for more than four hours, but with little

success. An attempt was made by the police outside to drive a truck to the door of

the Municipality to rescue their colleagues, but their efforts failed. Only then did the

police open fire, killing two people on the spot and fatally injuring three others. It

was assumed at the time that someone from the crowd fired first. The Residency

immediately moved a small unit of British forces from the Arabian Gulf to Bahrain as

a ‘precautionary measure’. 554

Belgrave believed that the clash had developed as a result of sectarian

tensions between the vegetable sellers (the majority of whom were Shi’ites) and

municipal officials who were mostly Sunni. Furthermore, the vegetable sellers were

already disaffected because they had recently been moved to a new market built by

the Ruler and had much preferred their previous, albeit outdated, premises. These

feelings compounded the sense of resentment towards municipal officers in his

554 TNA, FO 1016/465, Despatch 197, Burrows to FO, 11 March 1956; and ‘Bernard Burrows,
Residency’s Report for the Month of April 1956’, 1-10 (3-4).

© Hamad E. Abdulla 178