BEIRUT, Lebanon: The deputy head of the Supreme Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan has urged Bahraini leaders on Wednesday to stop injustice toward their people and release the country’s political prisoners.

“Those are your citizens and people so halt injustice and release prisoners and stop defying the people’s dignity and their sanctuaries.

"We do not seek power or rule but only seek justice and equality in rights,” Qabalan said during a meeting of Muslim scholars at the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council.

At the gathering, Sheikh Ahmad az-Zein, the head of the board of trustees of the Muslim Scholars coalition, said that the demands of the Bahraini protesters were legitimate but warned of a plan to derail their movement. “The demands of the Bahraini people are legitimate … but we were shocked by the level of the unjustified response by the Bahraini government which involved unacceptable collusion by Arab human rights groups,” Zein said.

“There is a plan to deviate the purpose of people’s movement away from its just cause toward chaos and strife between the people and their rulers on the one hand, and between sects on the other … which serves Israeli and American projects and interests at the same time,” Zein added.