Anger as Bernie Ecclestone says Bahrain is 'quiet and peaceful' and ex-policeman John Yates claims it's safer than London
Human rights activists fear further bloodshed and a violent crackdown by authorities in Bahrain after race organisers gave the green light to next weekend's Formula One grand prix in the troubled Gulf kingdom.
As the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) said it was satisfied that all proper security measures were in place for the race on 22 April, Nabeel Rajab, from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), said: "I'm afraid we might see local people who will be killed in the coming days because of the F1."
Anti-government protesters have called for the event to be cancelled, arguing that it lends legitimacy to a regime which continues to perpetrate human rights abuses.
The FIA, the sport's governing authority, confirmed that it would go ahead, with beefed-up security, after receiving reassurances.
John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Met who is in Bahrain advising on police reform, wrote to the FIA president, Jean Todt, to say he felt safer living in Bahrain "than I have often felt in London".
Bernie Ecclestone, 81, the F1 supremo, speaking at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, said of Bahrain: "I know people who live there, and it's all very quiet and peaceful."
The comments provoked a storm on social media sites as local activists said there were fears of a clampdown on protesters to prevent disruption to the event.
Pictures emerged of Ecclestone's image being burned in Bahrain posted on a Facebook page called "Pearl Family Circle – Martyrs' Square".
Protests by members of the majority Shia against the Sunni government of the Al-Khalifa royal family take place on an almost daily basis, mostly confined to villages away from the capital where groups have clashed with police using water cannon, teargas, stun grenades and plastic bullets.
Activists say there have been more than 70 deaths, 20 from teargas suffocation, since February 2011, when the Bahrain uprising began, with an estimated 600 "political prisoners" currently detained.
Civil unrest has escalated in recent weeks, in part due to concerns for the health of imprisoned activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, now 65 days into a hunger strike, being held in a military hospital.
On Monday, seven policemen were wounded by a homemade bomb outside the capital in what the interior ministry called an "act of terrorism", and an explosion in Manama on Thursday night damaged two cars.
The funeral of Ahmed Ismaeel, 22, described as a citizen journalist by activists, who was shot by a drive-by gunman, was reportedly attended by thousands.
A planned protest outside the British embassy today by a group calling itself the February 14 Youth Coalition, named after the date of the beginning of the uprising, may also raise tensions.
A BCHR report said an average of 15 villages were teargassed as collective punishment every night as the Shia majority continue to oppose the Sunni monarchy and call for the implementation of reforms
"We are very concerned for our safety. The FIA have got security companies and bullet-proof cars for their drivers and F1 teams," said Dr Ala'a Shehabi, a British-born Bahraini academic and activist. "Who's going to be protecting the Bahrainis who are going to be locked up in their villages, and prevented from protesting, given that they are going to be extremely angry and provoked by the F1?
"There's going to be popping champagne corks, live concerts and parties, in the middle of the island, which is a huge provocation to the families of victims who have been killed, and those of hundreds of political prisoners."
She said the comments by Yates had made people very angry. "To say everything is fine and dandy. Of course it is. The guy's living in his compound, earning a salary that's more than he ever used to dream of in the UK, loving the weather and thinking: 'This is great, why are people even on the streets protesting?"
"And I'm even more surprised at Ecclestone's remark. Because I've spoken to him. He knows about my own personal case, and how my husband was tortured, ambushed, kidnapped, subjected to a military trial and in jail for 10 months."
The BCHR said it had received reports of injuries caused by birdshot allegedly fired by police in villages on Thursday night. "All the villages in Bahrain last night were turbulent. They are protesting against the F1, and the government wants to hide that from the media," said Rajab. "That's the reality of Bahrain now."
The Guardian was unable to verify Rajab's claims.
There have been reprisals by groups loyal to the ruling royal family. A video posted on YouTube purports to show Bahraini police officers doing nothing as a Shia-owned supermarket was looted earlier this week, and was condemned by the human rights group Bahrainwatch as demonstrating "the continuing culture of impunity among the country's security forces, despite claims of reform by the government".
Amnesty International, in advance of the publication on Tuesday of its report "Flawed Reforms, Bahrain fails to achive justice for protesters", said: "Holding the grand prix in Bahrain in 2012 risks being interpreted by the government of Bahrain as symbolising a return to business as usual.
"The international community must not turn a blind eye to the ongoing human rights crisis in the country."