A Bahrain court ordered the country’s main Shia opposition group to be dissolved on Sunday, deepening a crackdown on dissent in the strategically important Western-allied kingdom, reports the Associated Press. Authorities last month stripped the citizenship of the country’s leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, prompting protests by his supporters. Officials accuse him of creating a sectarian atmosphere and of forming groups that “follow foreign religious ideologies and political entities.” Al-Wefaq is one of Bahrain’s so-called “political societies,” which are allowed under laws that technically forbid political parties. Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, crushed the 2011 protests with help from its larger neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Source: Dhaka Tribune July 17, 2016 19:07 UTC