Page 159 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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Before the month of Muharrarn, 1373, there were suggestions from the Sunnis that the
Government should no longer allow the “Asliur” processions to take place. It was argued
that the processions were not approved by the Sliia religious leaders. But the Government had
at no time any intention of restricting the “Ashur” observances.
On 10th Muharrarn, September 20th, 1953, a scries of entirely unexpected incidents
occurred. The procession was proceeding through the town by the appointed route escorted
by Police armed with lathis ; the same policemen who had been on duty during most of the
nine preceding nights. A section of Police, with rifles, was stationed in a lorry near the old
Municipal Garden and a similar reserve was held in the square in the centre of the town. The
streets were crowded with sightseers and there were many cars full of people at the street corners,
some of the Ruling Family were watching the procession from cars, and numbers of young
Arabs had come over from Muharraq.
As a section of the procession was moving round the old Municipal Garden there appeared
to be a dispute between two men who both claimed to be leaders of one of the groups of chest
beaters. Each group of men has a leader who waves a flag and encourages the men to further
efforts. As far as could be ascertained some of the spectators, who were Sunnis, joined in the
quarrel and immediately fighting began between the crowd and the men in the procession all
down the line. Stones and bottles were thrown, in the street and from house-tops, and pieces
of wood were taken, indiscriminately, from an open shed belonging to the Municipality. It was
said afterwards that the Municipal workers had provided the Arabs with sticks and bits of wood
and metal bars to use against the Shias. This was untrue.
When the fighting began a section of the crowd ran down a side street towards the Political
Agency, where there was a Police Guard with a Shia N.C.O. in charge. The guard, hearing the
uproar and seeing what appeared to be a mob advancing on the Agency, fired several shots into
the air. The Police in the procession, who were widely spaced, used their lathis and the men
in reserve were brought up to disperse the crowd. Some of them, without orders, fired into the
air. The lorry from the Juma Mosque square arrived with more police and at once the fighting
stopped and the crowd dispersed.
There were about 60 casualties reported among Sunnis and Shias, most of the injuries
were from stones, bottles or from the Police lathis or rifle butts. Eight persons were detained
in hospital, one of them had been slabbed and one had been shot from an old fashioned gun
loaded with nail heads and scraps of metal. No such gun was seen in the crowd. There were
no fatalities.
There was intense excitement in Manama and Muharraq during the rest of the day and
several minor incidents occurred in which both sides were the aggressors. In Muharraq Shias
returning from Manama by bus were dragged out of the buses and roughly handled by Arabs
and a large party of young Arabs was prevented from coming over to Manama by some members
of the Ruling Family. The Shias in Manama congregated in their Matams expecting to be
attacked by the Sunnis and the Arabs appeared to expect that they would be attacked by the
Shias, which was most improbable. In the evening the leading Shias made a formal protest to
the Government. Both sides claimed that the others had attacked them and the Shias asserted
that there had been a deliberately premeditated attack on them, which was not the case.
On the following day the Manama Shias assembled in their Matams and the Arab workers
from Aawli commandeered buses and came towards Manama armed with pieces of iron, sticks,
hammers and other implements. They were halted some miles outside the town and disarmed
by the Police but some of them had already got through the cordon.

Attack on Arad
In the middle of the day a large mob of Arabs from Muharraq and Hedd arrived, some by
bus and some in boats, at the small Shia village of Arad, on Muharraq Island, which they
attacked. Shots from a shotgun were fired and several of the villagers were wounded by them,
others were beaten and injured by stones. Several barasti houses in the village were torn down.
Two magistrates arrived on the scene at the same time as the police and the crowd dispersed
into the date gardens and into the sea where there is a ford to Muharraq. There was no
particular reason for the attack on this village whose people were on good terms with the Sunnis
living in the neighbourhood. It was, however, an isolated place, out of sight and without a
telephone.