Gandhinagar: All the around 4000 non-resident Gujaratis (NRG’s) in the West Asian nation of Bahrain, where violence had broken out after police firing on a religious meeting in Diraz near capital Manama, along with other Indian nationals there were safe, N P Lavingiya Additional Secretary and in-charge of the NRG department of the Gujarat government today said.

He said that he was in touch with the Indian Embassy in Bahrain through union ministry of external affairs.

Mr Lavingiya said that the situation has returned to normalcy there and the schools and offices have opened.

‘No non resident Gujarati or Indian living in Bahrain has been affected in the violence,’ he said adding that all were safe.

Notably around 4 thousand NRG’s live in Bahrain of whom a large number was from the central Gujarat.

To a query regarding panic caused among the family members of the NRG’s owing to suspension of internet services in Bahrain, Mr Lavangiya said that in such situations this type of steps sometimes become necessary to control the situation.

Five people were killed in Bahrain after security forces launched an operation on May 23 in Diraz, the home of the Shia-Muslim spiritual leader Ayatollah Isa Qassim and his supporters in a sit-in encampment there responded with violence. Close to 300 people were arrested

The raid followed Qassim’s sentencing this week to one year in jail, suspended for three years, on charges of corruption. The cleric faces expulsion from the kingdom after authorities revoked his citizenship last year for alleged links to Iran and fomenting violence, charges he has denied. Bahrain is lead by royal family of Sunni Muslim sect.

DeshGujarat