Jailed activist’s daughter arrested in Bahrain

A DAUGHTER of a prominent Bahraini activist was detained during an anti-government demonstration in the Gulf kingdom, hit by months of protests and crackdowns.

Zainab al-Khawaja, a 28-year-old blogger and activist, was arrested late on Thursday during a rally outside the capital, Manama.

She is a daughter of activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, jailed for life with seven other opposition leaders in June. A special tribunal convicted them of anti-state crimes.

Video purportedly of her arrest, above, shows a female officer handcuffing Ms al-Khawaja as she sits in the middle of a traffic circle. Another female officer appears to punch her in the face before both drag her by her handcuffs to a police vehicle. The rally, which began on Thursday near the opposition stronghold of Diraz and other Shia villages west of the capital, was marked with clashes as Bahraini security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters attempting to protest alongside a highway leading to Manama.

There were more clashes on Friday with police firing tear gas at a funeral procession for a protester allegedly run over by a police car on Thursday.