Bahrain Unrest Cont.

Sunday was another terrific day here in Manama. Clashes took place in the city in front of Bahrain Financial Harbor when the Police tried to redirect the protestors from there to Lulu, where the Perl roundabout is. There were video footages on YouTube at showing how the Police attacked the so called peaceful protestors and how the protestors counterattack.

Office was dead quite from the morning. Clients were not responding to the calls or mails. Roads were jammed with traffic in the morning. Many offices and shops closed early due to the unrest. We were also asked to go home after lunch. Our accountant Sameer’s cousin was trapped inside University of Bahrain as the anti government protests were making issues at the uni. Anita was worried about the kids as they got very late to come back home after school due to heavy traffic. I heard about the death of one Pakistani guy in the evening. Few other men were also hospitalized due to attacks.

I learnt the fact that the Shia majority has faced difficulties throughout the years as well as how the current ruling family has developed the country. Well its too early to decide which party is right as there are many arguments for and against. The protestors want the ruling family to give up the regime but the Sunnis are supporting the government. Whatever the end result will be, I think it should happen through a peaceful dialog but not through violence like this.

The situation here is bit similar to what has happened in Sri Lanka in 1980s between Tamils and Sinhalese.  Why I’m telling like that is because that time there was a conflict between the two races due to misunderstandings and political agendas. One race wanted to be dominant over the other when it comes to power. Even though the major issues were solved by that time, later it evolved as a terrorist issue which ultimately resulted a dark cloud in the history for 30 years.  As a child who grew up with a war in the country, I have always learnt that it was against terrorism but not against a specific race. It was not an ethnic problem but a war against a terrorist group who wanted to divide the country. But the ugly truth as per many wise people was that the ethnic conflict between the majority and the minority races was the seed of that unpleasant war.

As per what I see here, I’m afraid that the same might happen to Bahrain if people do not try to understand each pothers problems at this stage. At the end of the day, we all are people with different beliefs in mind but with the same red blood in the heart.