MANAMA (Dispatches) -- Bahraini security forces faced a second consecutive night of unrest in Shia-majority suburbs around the capital, as protests over the detention of religious scholars and young activists continued into Sunday, according to opposition-linked accounts.
The demonstrations, which began after a security raid in the Al-Daih area on Oct. 29, have highlighted mounting tensions between the monarchy and Shia communities demanding the release of detained clerics and minors. 
Witness accounts circulated by opposition media described gatherings in several villages and urban outskirts of Manama on Sunday evening, with some locations seeing confrontations between young protesters and police units.
According to the Bahrain Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, an opposition-aligned monitoring group, security forces detained four young men, including a 16-year-old, during the Oct. 29 operation in Al-Daih. 
The committee also said authorities extended the detention of eight minors from the Sitra area by an additional two weeks. 
The current wave of unrest follows what human rights groups describe as an intensifying campaign against Shia religious figures. 
The U.S.-based Shia Muslim Foundation said at least six religious activists have been arrested in recent weeks, including clerics, reciters of religious elegies, and organizers of mourning gatherings. 
The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, a local monitoring organization, reported that the detention of Habib Khamis, head of a prominent religious center in the Sanabis area, was extended by 15 days, while the detentions of Mulla Habib al-Darazi and Sayyid Ibrahim al-Alawi were renewed for two weeks. 
The forum linked the extensions to the observance of religious commemorations.
The unrest comes amid a broader crackdown documented by international human rights organizations since early 2026. In a joint letter to French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of his October visit to Manama, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and other groups stated that more than 700 people have been arrested since the outbreak of the terrorist U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. 
The groups also reported that 69 Bahrainis, including 33 children, had their citizenship revoked in April, and that at least 37 Shia clerics were arrested on a single day in May, with 69 defendants currently facing mass trial proceedings. 
Opposition groups have called for a “Day of Rage” protest on Nov. 8, coinciding with court hearings for several detained religious scholars. The Feb. 14 Youth Coalition, a banned opposition movement, issued a statement urging widespread participation. 
Bahrain, a small Persian Gulf archipelago state that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has faced periodic unrest since 2011, when Arab Spring protests by its Shia majority were suppressed with support from neighboring Persian Gulf states.