page_title: Bahraini uprising of 2011
section_title: State of emergency
hierarchical_section_title: Bahraini uprising of 2011 / Timeline / State of emergency
caption_attribution_description: English: Protest against the Saudi intervention in Bahrain
context_page_description: The Bahraini uprising of 2011 was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini Opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and 2011–12 Iranian protests and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and later some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the majority Shia population, and expanded to a call to end the monarchy of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa following a deadly night raid on 17 February 2011 against protesters at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, known locally as Bloody Thursday.
context_section_description: On 15 March, King Hamad declared a three-month state of emergency. Thousands of protesters marched to the Saudi embassy in Manama denouncing the GCC intervention, while clashes between security officers using shotgun and demonstrators took place in various locations. The most violent were on Sitra island stretching throughout morning till afternoon resulting in two deaths and over 200 injuries among protesters and one death among police. Doctors at the Salmaniya Medical Complex said it was overwhelmed with injured and that some had bullet wounds. Jeffrey D. Feltman, then the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs was sent to Bahrain to mediate between the two sides. Opposition parties said they accepted the US initiative while the government did not respond.
  16 March crackdown
  In the early morning of 16 March, over 5,000 security forces backed by tanks and helicopters stormed the Pearl Roundabout, where protesters had camped for about a month. The number of protesters was much lower than that in previous days due to many of them returning to villages to protect their homes. Intimidated by the amount of security forces, most protesters retreated from the location, while others decided to stay and were violently cleared within two hours. Then, security forces cleared road blockades and the financial harbor, and moved to take control over Salmaniya hospital. They entered the hospital building with their sticks, shields, handguns and assault rifles after clearing the parking area, and treated it as a crime scene.
  Witnesses said ambulances were captured inside the hospital and some health workers were beaten. Unable to reach Salmaniya hospital, the wounded were taken to small clinics outside the capital, which were stormed by police soon after, prompting protesters to use mosques as field clinics. Then, the army moved to opposition strongholds where it set up a number of checkpoints and thousands of riot police entered, forcing people to retreat to their homes by nightfall. The Al Wefaq party advised people to stay off the streets, avoid confrontations with security forces and stay peaceful after the army had announced a nighttime 12-hour curfew in Manama and banned all sorts of public gatherings. Eight people had died that day, five by gunshot, one by birdshot and two police reportedly run over by an SUV.
  Arrests and widening crackdown
  By the early hours of 17 March, over 1,000 protesters had been arrested, including seven leading opposition figures, among them Abduljalil al-Singace, Abdulwahab Hussain, Ibrahim Sharif and Hasan Mushaima. In an interview with Al Jazeera before his arrest, the latter had claimed protesters were gunned down despite offering only non-violent civil resistance. In response to the government's reaction to the protests, a number of top Shia officials submitted their resignations, including two ministers, four appointed MPs and a dozen judges. Protesters in several villages ignored the curfew and gathered in streets only to be dispersed by security forces, which allowed funerals as the only means of public gathering. Arrested protesters were taken to police stations where they were mistreated and verbally abused.
  Later in the day, surgeon Ali al-Ekri was arrested from the still surrounded Salmaniya hospital and by April another 47 health workers had been arrested. Their case drew wide international attention. Patients at the hospital reported getting beaten and verbally abused by security forces and staff said patients with protest related injuries were kept in wards 62 and 63 where they were held as captives, denied health care and beaten on daily basis to secure confessions. Physicians for Human Rights accused the government of violating medical neutrality and Médecins Sans Frontières said injured protesters were denied medical care and that hospitals were used as baits to snare them. The government of Bahrain dismissed these reports as lacking any evidence and said forces were only deployed in the hospital to keep order.
  On 18 March, the Pearl Monument in the middle of the Pearl 
caption: Thousands of protesters denouncing the Saudi intervention in a march to the Saudi embassy in Manama on 15 March
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