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With the ongoing strike, Sunnis described by Burrows as ‘tribesmen’ on the

night of 6 July headed to the Ruler’s palace offering their services in order to force

the reopening of the local souq. Instead, the Ruler sent a police force of seventy-five

men to the market place, their presence encouraged locals to reopen their stores

safely without others forcing them to close. The souq finally opened and life

gradually returned to normal. 196 BAPCO’s oil refinery was also affected by the strike

but after the 10 July employees returned to work. 197

The Commission of Enquiry announced by the Ruler consisted of a British

judge as its adviser, Sheikh Abdulla bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Abdul-Latif bin Mohammed

Al-Sa’ad, and Abdul-Hussain Hilli. The last two being a Sunni and a Shi’ite Sharia

judges respectively. However the two judges later refused to take part in the

commission and were replaced by the Ruler with Ahmed Fakhroo, a Sunni

businessman, and Mansoor Al-Arrayed, a well-known senior Shi’ite. 198

The Commission of Enquiry swiftly convened and met from 7 to 10 July,

basing its findings on interviews it published in its report and presented it to the

Ruler. The Commission interviewed a number of eyewitnesses and had reached out

to Al-Alaiwat to assist in the process of locating the eyewitnesses who wished to

participate with their testimonies to the Commission. The Commission stated that

the rioters had hidden the number plates of the buses that had brought the

demonstrators to the Mu’min Mosque. They had also armed themselves after

breaking into Turani’s Scrapyard in Manama. An officer from the fort named Hamad

196 TNA, FO 371/109813, Burrows to FO, 20 July 1954.
197 Belgrave, Personal Column, 202; and TNA, FO 371/109813, Burrows to FO, 10 July 1954.
198 TNA, FO 371/109813, Burrows to FO on Developments in Bahrain, 20 July 1954.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 65