Security forces in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Qatif cracked down on a large demonstration killing two people and injuring at least 20, after a Shia cleric was shot at and arrested on Sunday, reports quoting activists said.
Quoting activists, Al Jazeera reported that hundreds of protesters took to the streets, after Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric and anti-government activist was chased, shot at and arrested while driving earlier in the day.
A Qatif resident told the Qatar-based broadcaster that the arrest took place at around 4:00 p.m. and that organizers called for mass demonstrations after the evening prayer. The protests were the largest in the city since November- December when at least six demonstrators were shot dead.
The official Saudi Press Agency said Nimr was arrested after he and his followers exchanged fire with security forces and crashed into a police vehicle. It said Nimr was shot in the thigh and he faces charges of instigating unrest in the oil-rich Eastern Province.
Nimr has been wanted by authorities after making calls for more rights for minority Shias in the conservative Kingdom ruled by a Sunni monarchy. He has been calling release of political prisoners, end to discrimination against Shias and steps to check corruption.
Activists from the Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia's Shia live, posted pictures online of the grey-bearded Nimr in a vehicle covered with what appeared to be a blood-stained white sheet and being cradled by an unidentifiable man in uniform. Nimr's brother said the spiritual leader was detained by police while driving from a farm to his house in Qatif.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and a key ally of the U.S. and Europe in the Middle East, has largely escaped the kind of protests that have toppled four Arab heads of state in North Africa and the Middle East in the recent past. Of late, the Eastern Province, home to about one million Shias and where the country's oil sector is concentrated, has been witnessing small and sporadic protests which have been promptly put down by security forces.
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