Manama - Bahrain's health minister has resigned over the government's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and the housing minister is boycotting cabinet meetings, an opposition newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Bahraini forces backed by helicopters launched a crackdown on the protesters on Wednesday, imposing a curfew and clearing hundreds from a camp that had become the symbol of an uprising by the Shi'ite Muslim majority.
Al-Wasat did not given a reason on its website why Nezar bin Sadeq al-Baharna, a Shi'ite who was recently appointed health minister, had resigned but said he had witnessed people being mistreated in a wing of the Salmaniya hospital.
It said that Housing Minister Majeed bin Mohsen al-Alawi, another Shi'ite, was “boycotting” government.
“I boycott the government because of the way it is dealing with the current events in the country,” the site quoted him as saying.
Twelve judges from the Shi'ite court circuit also submitted their resignation in a statement sent to al-Wasat, citing the “bloody events, use of excessive force and weapons”. - Reuters