DUBAI, March 30 (Reuters) - Bahrain has arrested at least three Internet activists in a crackdown against pro-democracy protest that started two weeks ago, a human rights groups said on Wednesday.
Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights named the three as prominent blogger Mahmood al-Yousif, teacher and trade unionist Sana Abdul-Razzaq Zinedine and Ayat al-Qurmozi, a poet and university student. The Bahrain Youth Movement also said Yousif and Qurmozi were arrested.
"His wife called me in the morning and said he was arrested," Rajab said of al-Yousif, who started an Internet campaign several years ago called "Just Bahraini" to combat sectarianism in the island kingdom, which has a Shi'ite majority and a government led by the Sunni al-Khalifa family.
"They're targeting a lot of Internet activists and bloggers who've been using their real names. Many are hiding now."
Rajab said on social media site Twitter that Qurmozi was "arrested by Bahrain police after they destroyed her house and personal belongings". Bahraini Twitter users have set up a hash tag called "Free Mahmoud".
Government officials in Manama declined to comment
The Gulf Arab state launched a crackdown two weeks ago on anti-government protests who had been demonstrating and staging sit-ins for weeks.
The Bahraini forces' crackdown stunned the state's Shi'ite majority. The authorities brought in troops from Sunni-led Gulf neighbours including Saudi Arabia, banned public gatherings and set up checkpoints manned by masked forces across the capital.
More than 60 percent of Bahrainis are Shi'ites and most are calling for a constitutional monarchy. But demands by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed minority Sunnis. (Editing by Jon Boyle)
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