DUBAI: The Bahrain government appears ready to continue any and all crackdowns on pro-change demonstrators in the country, as the Pakistani government has agreed to dispatch a number of “mercenaries” to the small Gulf state as part of the Khalifa regime's crackdown on protests. The agreement to send the troops was reached when Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari met King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa during his one-day visit to Bahrain last week, IRNA reported. Manama has been recruiting former soldiers and policemen from Pakistan at a steady rate to strengthen the government's forces. Pakistani and Saudi Arabian forces have played a large role in suppressing anti-government protests in Bahrain since the beginning of unrest in the Persian Gulf country. Both Saudi and Pakistan seem willing to support the Sunni regime in Bahrain in the face of the majority Shia population. President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Nabeel Rajab told reporters on 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 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. International rights groups have condemned the summary detentions of protesters and called on the government in Manama to end its violent crackdown on activists calling for change and democracy. BM
