Bahrain Mirror: Diraz will have been isolated today (July 10, 2016) for 20 days. It has been isolated on the social, commercial and digital levels since the government announced the revocation of Sheikh Isa Qassim's citizenship on June 20. It is noteworthy mentioning that the Internet services in Diraz degrades daily from 7 PM until the dawn.

According to Al-Wasat local newspaper, the authorities continued to impose restrictions on Diraz and block all its entrances (11 entrances), only allowing the entry of its residents, which socially isolated the village during the past period, particularly during the Eid.

On the commercial level, the shops were semi-paralyzed for 3 weeks approximately as citizens not residing in Diraz were denied entry.

Owners of shops said they suffered great loss because their work was hindered. As the Internet service remained weak, the shop owners were not able to pay online and forced to use the cash money only, which constituted an obstacle for the commercial transactions as many purchasers use online payment especially in an area that lacks ATMs.

During peak times, especially during Eid, the two entrances, which were left open, witnessed long quos of cars. This made the cars wait for more than hour to enter the village.

The poor Internet led to several problems in the phone applications. Citizens were not able to receive messages, photos or videos via WhatsApp.  Meanwhile, users could not access websites.

Al-Wasat stated that it tried to communicate with members of the National Institution of Human Rights to inquire about how much cutting off Internet Services contradicts with human rights, however they did not respond.

Arabic Version