MANAMA: More than a hundred civil servants in Bahrain were summarily fired for participating in anti-government protests, the state news agency said Sunday, in the latest crackdown on the opposition.

The Bahrain News Agency said Sunday 111 employees of the Education Ministry had been punished for participating in the street marches and strikes last month, demanding greater political freedoms and equal rights for the Shiite majority in the tiny, but strategically important Gulf island nation.
The employees will also be prosecuted for “flagrant violations” of the country’s civil service law, the state-run news agency said, adding that last month’s Teachers’ Union strike was politically motivated and aimed at “crippling schools.”

Separately, Bahraini security forces have arrested a lawyer known for defending opposition figures, a month after the Shiite-led protest movement was crushed, Human Rights Watch said Sunday.

Mohammad al-Tajer was arrested at his home Friday by “more than two dozen uniformed and plainclothes security officers, most of whom were masked,” HRW said, adding that no reason was given for his arrest. “Human Rights Watch believes Tajer is the first defense lawyer detained in more than a decade. He is well known for defending opposition figures and rights activists arrested in security sweeps.”

“The government’s arrest of a leading defense lawyer shows that Bahrain is taking a turn for the worse on human rights,” Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said in the statement.

“The authorities should either release Mohammad al-Tajer or charge him now with a recognizable offense.”
HRW also said that Dr. Sadeq Abdullah, a surgeon at the Salmaniya Medical Center, was summoned to the Interior Ministry on April 14 but had not yet returned home. He later called his wife to tell her he was “fine.”

Family members were allowed to drop off his medications but neither they nor his lawyer have been authorized to see him, HRW added.
“Abdullah is one of at least 19 doctors arrested by authorities since March 17, at least eight of whom were arrested within the past week,” HRW said.

“We have serious concerns regarding the well-being and safety of some of the detainees,” Stork said.
“The authorities should immediately provide information on the whereabouts of all detainees arrested since March 17.”

Bahrain imposed martial law March 15 to crush the Shiite-led uprising.
Saudi-led Gulf forces entered the country in late March, freeing up Bahraini troops to thwart the protests.
Hundreds of protesters, political leaders, human rights activists and Shiite professionals like doctors and lawyers, have been detained.

None of those in custody have been publicly charged with a crime or brought to trial.
At least 30 people have died since Feb. 15, when anti-government protests began in Bahrain.
Among the dead are four opposition supporters who died in police custody, including a blogger and one of the founders of the opposition’s main newspaper, Kareem Fakhrawi.

Two weeks ago, authorities said three former top editors of Bahrain’s most popular opposition newspaper, Al-Wasat, will face trial for “unethical” coverage of the unprecedented political unrest and accused three of the paper’s top editors of “publishing fabricated news” and “false pictures.”

Bahrain’s justice minister said Thursday the opposition’s main Shiite party will be dismantled within a month for “threatening peace.”
Al-Wefaq has been the leading political backer of the uprising in strategic Gulf country that is the home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.