![Bahrain launched a security operation in the village of Diraz on 23 May 2017 [Alaa Shehabi/Twitter]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bahrain-alaashehabi.png?fit=1142%2C643&ssl=1)
Bahrain’s interior ministry said today that it had launched a security operation in the home village of the country’s Shia Muslim spiritual leader, the site of a sit-in encampment of his followers.
The incursion into Diraz follows Ayatollah Isa Qassim’s sentencing this week to one year in jail, suspended for three years, on charges of corruption.
Security operation launched this morning in Deraz to maintain order and remove violations punishable under law
— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) May 23, 2017
Pictures posted by activists online showed at least 10 armoured police cars lining up and masked protesters erecting road blocks with planks and cinder blocks.
The images showed police shooting tear gas canisters.
“Security operation launched this morning in Deraz to maintain order and remove violations punishable under law,” the ministry said on its official Twitter account, adding: “The security interference was to enforce security and general order since the site was the meeting ground of fugitives.”
In 2011, Bahrain crushed an uprising by Shias demanding reforms that would give them a bigger voice in governing the Sunni Muslim-ruled country. Bahrain denies any discrimination.