Page 344 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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On March 11th another serious incident occurred. For over a year there had been
constant trouble between the Manama Municipal authorities and the stall-holders in the fruit
and vegetable markets close to the municipal office building. Most of them were villagers.
A market inspector called on the policeman on duty to help deal with a man who was occupying
an unauthorised place. There was a fracas and a crowd collected, the policeman and several
municipal officials retreated to the Municipal building where they were immediately besieged
by a threatening mob. The Police from the fort were called out to their rescue and two parties
of police were sent to the scene in lorries. One party reached the building where they were
surrounded, but the second party was held up by crowds some distance down the road. For
3 i hours the police faced an angry mob who threw stones at them and abused them. Finally
some policemen on the first floor of the Municipal Offices fired their rifles in the air, without
orders. Five persons on the edge of the crowd were killed. They asserted that someone in
the crowd first fired a shot, at about the same time shots were fired by unknown people in other
parts of the town. The crowd dispersed immediately after the firing.
A partial strike and a state of unrest followed this affair, lasting for several days ; shops
were closed and public vehicles did not function. Gangs of youths made attacks on private
cars at night and attempted to put up road blocks. The streets were littered with nails to
puncture car tyres. A young Arab, walking with his friends in the afternoon on a main road,
was shot and wounded in the shoulder by unidentified people in a car. At a meeting organised
by the H.E.C. an Egyptian who had come down from Kuwait made a very violent speech, and
returned to Kuwait. A curfew order was enforced but it was difficult for the police to carry out
the order in the narrow lanes in the old part of the town. While there was trouble in Manama
there was little or no trouble in Muharraq. His Highness appointed a Court of Enquiry to
investigate the shooting incident ; it consisted of the Judicial Adviser to the Government and
the Judicial Adviser to the British Government. At the same time he announced the formation
of the Administrative Council which included members of the Khalifah family holding import­
ant posts in the Government and several senior officials.
Abdel Rahman Baker, one of the leading members of the H.E.C. of Persian origin and
Qatar nationality, left Bahrain and remained away for about five months. He paid visits to
Syria and to Egypt, where he was a guest of the Government. His violent speeches against the
Bahrain Government and against the British were broadcast on the Cairo radio and reported
in Middle East newspapers.
During the Autumn of 1955 His Highness had met several times two members of the
H.E.C. with the hope of being able to come to some agreement on various controversial subjects;
the two men were Seyd Ali and Abdul Aziz Shemlan. The former was a Shia Mullah of Iraqi
origin who until his inclusion in the committee, as a religious figurehead, was a person of no
^consequence, the latter was a Sunni, half Negro and half Indian, the son of a man who had been
mprisoned and deported from Bahrain for sedition in the time of the late Ruler, Shaikh Hamed
bin Isa. He was one of the Bahrain boys who was sent with the first batch of students by the
Government to the junior school of the American University of Beirut, where he stayed for two
years. He was employed in a confidential capacity by the R.A.F. and subsequently for many
years in the Bank of the Middle East. He had travelled in the Middle East and visited Egypt.
The talks produced no results. When there was an approach to an agreement the H.E.C.
misinterpreted what had been discussed and agreed and then complained that their version of
what was agreed had not been carried out.
In May 1956 His Highness again saw these two men. The H.E.C. had agreed to change
their name, the old designation was abolished and the organisation became “The Committee
of National Union” (C.N.U.). One of the members left the committee and four Sunni and
three Shias remained but the control of the committee was in the hands of Shemlan, Alewat and
Baker. A proclamation was issued which allowed any groups of people to form themselves
into committees with the object of putting before the Government suggestions of general
benefit to the community. One group in Manama, mostly of Persian extraction, formed
another committee but they were somewhat ineffective, and did not take part in political affairs.
The H.E.C. having been abolished, though superseded by seven of the original H.E.C.
members, under the new name, His Highness agreed to receive a deputation of four members
from the committee. They were Seyal Ali, Shemlan, Ibrahaim Fakroo and Abdu Ali Alewat.
Ibrahaim Fakroo was a shopkeeper, a member of the Fakroo family who came from the
Persian coast south of Bushire, they were originally of the Tangasturi tribe. Abdu Ali Alewat
was a Shia Bahraini with a somewhat chequered career who had recently become bankrupt and
was involved in a case about “dud” cheques—he was known as “Abu Chequat”—the father
of cheques. They were not the type of men who would normally be in contact with the Ruler.