Bahraini authorities attacked thousands of protesters who marched towards Manama's center on Friday after the funeral on a key opposition figure's father who allegedly died after he was beaten by police, an opposition ex-MP said.

"Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and used police cars to try to run over protesters who marched in thousands towards Pearl Square," epicenter of month-long anti-regime protests in the spring, after the funeral of 70-year-old Ali Hasan al-Dehi, Matar Matar told AFP.

The protesters headed from the western village of Dehi towards the square, which was the symbol of a protest inspired by uprisings sweeping the Arab world and which was razed shortly after demonstrators were driven out in mid-March.

Matar said he did not have information on the number of Friday's casualties.

Dehi was the father of Hussein al-Dehi, who is deputy head of Bahrain's largest Shiite opposition formation, Al-Wefaq. The organization claimed he died after riot police attacked him, while the health ministry said the cause of death was "a heart attack and hypertension."

"Even if he wasn't beaten to death, his health deteriorated due to the violence used against him," Matar argued.

According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Ali Hasan al-Dehi was beaten to death by riot police on Wednesday while returning to his home in the village of Dehi. Opposition groups claim he died as a result of his alleged treatment by police.

Since mid-February, thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging regular demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

 

On March 14, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

 

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in the crackdown.

 

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have "evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces and riot police" in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.