Page 161 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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keepers who are always prone to nervousness, immediately shut their shops. By the time they
had done so the crowd had disappeared. There was indignation among both Sunnis and Shias,
both parties considered that the other party had been let off too lightly. Later in the day there
were demonstrations in the Shia quarter of the town and at the Political Agency ; one or two
cars were stopped, one of them being occupied by a member of the Ruling Family, but there
were no disorders.
Next day, 1st July, a mass meeting in a Shia mosque near the fort was organised by some
of the more violent Shias and was attended by very large crowds of people who filled the
mosque and the open space around it. The men who were sentenced on the previous day were
detained in the fort. Infiamatory speeches were delivered by religious leaders and others on
the subject of the Sitra prisoners and about the alleged wrongs which were suffered by the Shia
community. When the meeting ended the whole crowd, but not apparently the people who had
addressed it, surged out of the mosque to the fort on their way they stopped at a builder’s yard
and picked up iron bars and sticks. Some went round to the back of the fort, among the
married quarters, and attempted to break into the Eastern door ; others advanced to the front
of the fort, below the walls, and to the Eastern gate.
A senior N.C.O. who was subsequently promoted, went outside the gate and ordered the
crowd to disperse, while doing this someone in the crowd fired a revolver at which some of
the Police, who were on the roof and on the towers of the Fort fired their rifles without orders.
According to the statements which they subsequently made before the Court of Enquiry which
was afterwards held, they fired into the air, but the outcome of the firing was that four men in
the crowd were shot and several others received bullet wounds.
There was a further demonstration later in the day led by the Shia leaders who carried the
bodies of the men who were shot into the Political Agency before they took them to the cemetery
for burial.
On the following day the bazaar was shut and most Shias remained in their houses, the
fish, meat and vegetable markets where the sellers are predominantly Shias, were deserted and
none of the village buses was running. A large proportion of the Shias who work for the oil
company were absent for several days though after two days many of the Arab shops opened
again. Shias in the villages, wishing to go back to work, were intimidated from doing so by
their leaders and a few who managed to bring produce into the bazaar did so surreptitiously,
but the Government made arrangements for selling meat, fish, etc., in the Kodhabia market
which is in a Sunni district. At about this time a group of Sunnis with strong political leanings
linked up with the more extreme Shia leaders with the ultimate object of obtaining certain
demands from the Government.
For some time the Government had under consideration the desirability of enforcing
third-party insurance on all vehicles in Bahrain. Many cases had been heard in the courts in
which victims of motor accidents had been unable to obtain any compensation because the driver
of the car was not in a position to pay compensation. The fact that the drivers were frequently
sent to prison was small consolation to the victims or to their dependents. The regulation was
published and at the time of publication it aroused no interest, when, however, the date on which
it was to come into effect approached there was a general outcry, mainly on account of the
insurance rates which were higher than they had been in the past. The Government held
several meetings with car owners, representatives of the taxi and bus drivers, and insurance
agents, and endeavoured to explain fully the workings of the regulations. There was, however,
organised opposition to the scheme and proposals were made by a group of Arabs for a sub­
stitute scheme which was, in fact, a form of local insurance plan.
On 25th September taxi drivers and bus drivers went on strike in protest against com­
pulsory third-party insurance. In a day or two irresponsible elements, many of them school
boys and hooligans, began spreading nails on the roads and then arranging traps to cause
punctures, made from pieces of tin with nails stuck upright in them. The public suffered a
great deal of inconvenience and expense from these proceedings which, it is understood, were
practices learned from the Lebanon where taxi strikes constantly occur. The strike was
unpopular among many sections of the public especially among car owners.
It came to an end after a week and the Government agreed to allow the locally formed
organisation, known as the “Sanduk” (The Box) to enter the field with the foreign insurance
companies, for the purpose of insuring vehicles against third-party risks. The conditions of
the new law were not changed and third-party insurance was compulsory. It remains to be
seen with what success the locally formed insurance “company” will operate in future.