MANAMA // Ali al Moumen left his home in the neighbourhood of Sitra early on Thursday morning, bound for Pearl Square.
According to his relatives, he wanted to return to the square to help those who were injured after security forces raided the area before dawn. Later that day Ali, 22, in his final semester of an engineering degree, was pronounced dead after being shot.
"Ali wanted to help get people out [of Pearl Square] and save lives, but he lost his," said his cousin, also called Ali, who would only be referred to by his first name. "There is grief, anger and rage, there is nothing humane about this. Where is the humanity?"
Ali, 23, joined dozens of relatives and friends, including the dead man's grieving parents, who had gathered outside the Intensive Care Unit at the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama late on Thursday evening after his cousin was pronounced dead.
Ali's mother, Umm Abdullah, sat in a wheelchair in a room closed off from the main corridor, surrounded by female family members who attempted to comfort her. She recalled seeing her son at around 7am on Thursday, just before he left for Lulu Square.
"I am not angry, this is for my country and my religion," said Ali's father Ahmed al Moumen, standing alongside family members, all men, in the corridor outside the ICU. "But, I say also, that King Hamad should not feel happy."
Yesterday, the crown prince called for self-control from all sides involved in the unrest. "We need to call for self-restraint from all sides, the armed forces, security men and citizens," Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said. "I urge you, there should be calm. Now is time for calm."
Just inside the double-doors to the ward, Ali's brothers and close relatives gathered around his body, crying and wailing.
Outside, the crowds grew as the body was placed in a metal casket, which they followed to the hospital's morgue.
Yesterday afternoon, hundreds of men, women and children gathered in Sitra for Ali's funeral. They described him as a "hero" and "very active" in the community.
