Bahrain king orders full medical care for injured sailor
King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa has ordered full medical care for a Bahraini sailor who was shot by Qatar’s coastguards after his boat strayed into their waters.
“A Bahraini medical team will go to Qatar to monitor the case of the Bahraini citizen shot this week and who is still at Hamad General Hospital in Doha,” Dr Faisal Al Hamer, Bahrain’s health minister, said. “HM King Hamad has ordered a close monitoring of his case and his treatment either in Bahrain or overseas if need be,” the minister said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
Adel Al Taweel, 37, reportedly told a delegation of Bahrainis from Dair Village who visited him in Doha that the Qatari coastguards fired one shot in the air and then at him from a distance of 15 metres.
“He will need several days before he could walk or stand,” a member of the delegation from the coastal city north of Manama said.
The Qatari coastguards said that they started firing shots in the air when they spotted seven Bahraini boats in their waters.
Six of the boats turned back, but the seventh did not heed the warnings and did not leave the area. More shots were fired and eventually one sailor was injured, according to Qatari officials.
Adel’s sister said that Adel and the other sailors complied with the warnings fired after their boat strayed in the Qatari waters.
“He was taken to Hamad Hospital in Doha where he was treated and we were told that he is in good condition now.”
Several Bahrainis or expatriates working on Bahraini boats have often been warned by Bahraini and Qatari authorities to avoid fishing in Qatari waters.
Qatar’s coastguards have said that they are using sophisticated radars to monitor movements around or near their 550-kilometre long coasts, mainly to foil attempts to smuggle drugs. They said that their focus is on the northern coasts often used by drugs smugglers.
