DUBAI: Bahrain’s human rights body slammed the silence over Qatar’s continuous targeting of local fishermen in the kingdom’s territorial waters, state news agency BNA reported.

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) expressed concern over the silence of NGOs on Qatar’s violations of human rights, BNA reported on Friday, without naming the accused organizations. 

Bahrain’s Interior Minister Rashid Al-Khalifa issued a warning to Qatari authorities earlier this week and described Qatar’s actions towards Bahraini fishermen as “brutal.”

The minister said that in the last 10 years, Qatar had stopped hundreds of boats with official Bahraini IDs after claiming they were in Qatari waters.

However, the fishermen had been fishing in those areas for centuries without any violation, the minister said, adding that it was well known that those areas were part of Bahrain.

The minister said the fishermen were arrested in a hostile and humiliated manner. 

“According to Bahraini fishermen, they were stopped in Bahrain’s water, and we won’t accept this,” he said.