Bahrain's Foreign Police Add to Tensions
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 07:39AM WSJ
Pakistani nationals took refuge at a Pakistan Club in the Bahrain's capital Manama, March 19, 2011.
The Al Khalifa family, Sunni Muslims who rule over a Shiite-majority population, have long relied on recruits from Sunni-majority countries such as Pakistan, Jordan and Yemen to fill the ranks of their police forces. As antigovernment protests have flared in Bahrain, culminating in a violent crackdown last week, the monarchy has turned again to Pakistan military-linked foundations to find recruits for its security forces.
This month, Bahrani recruiters for the National Guard, a paramilitary body, signed up 1,000 new security personnel during road shows in Pakistan, according to officials with military foundations in Pakistan that organized the recruitment.
A spokeswoman for the Bahraini government declined to comment on its policy of recruiting foreigners to its security forces.
Bahrain's dependency on foreign workers to fill security and other jobs has vexed Bahraini Shiites, who see it as an attempt to tilt the religious balance in the country and exclude them from jobs. Many are angered by the role of Pakistani policemen in suppressing the antigovernment protests.
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