Pakistan to send more troops to Bahrain

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari (L) met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain on Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194995.html

Pakistan has agreed to dispatch more mercenaries to Bahrain to help Al Khalifa regime's crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Persian Gulf state.

The agreement was reached when Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa during his one-day visit to Bahrain on Wednesday, IRNA reported Saturday.

Manama has been recruiting former soldiers and policemen from Pakistan at a steady rate to strengthen the government's forces.

In many demonstrations Bahraini protesters shouted slogans against Pakistani security forces in Urdu.

Pakistani and Saudi forces have played a major rule in suppressing anti-government protests in Bahrain since the beginning of unrest in the Persian Gulf country.

President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Nabeel Rajab said Friday that the Pakistani recruits have behaved with a heavy hand toward demonstrators.

"They're told they are going to go to a holy war in Bahrain to kill some non-Muslims or kafir [infidel] or Shias. They are paid well, maybe," Rajab noted.

Tens of thousands of Bahraini protesters have been holding peaceful anti-government rallies throughout the Middle Eastern country since February, demanding an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa family.

Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested and tortured in prisons in a government-sanctioned crackdown on protests since the beginning of the demonstrations.

According to the BCHR, there are currently over 1,000 political detainees inside the country.