Missing at the Riffa Police Station

Here is a report from today's Gulf Daily News, Bahrain:

Missing worker flies home

By BEGENA GEORGE

AN Indian worker, who sparked an international alert after apparently vanishing in Bahrain while in police custody all the time, left for home last night.

Biju K Antony was arrested for being drunk on November 5, two days before he was reported missing by his friends.

His company later reported him missing at the Riffa Police station, the same station where he was being held.

The 33-year-old's relatives in Kerala had also appealed to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi to help track him down.

The company where Mr Antony works said it was sending him on the repeated requests from his friends and relatives.

"We've been getting many calls from Biju's friends and relatives back home because they don't want him to work in Bahrain any more after all the confusion he created," said a company spokesman.

1) Bars and Pubs are very much legal in Bahrain.

2) On Nov 7th Mr. Antony's friends had reported him missing. Mr. Antony's employer too reported him missing at the Riffa Police Station.

3) If the policemen in Riffa Police Station were not aware of Mr. Antony being held in their custody, it says a lot about the system.

4) Blame it on the Indian! For the company spokesman to say that Mr. Antony caused all the confusion... is baffling. If one were to believe the newspaper report, the confusion was caused by the cops in Riffa Police Station.

"Even though he has not completed his two-year contract with us to be entitled for an air ticket, the company still paid for it."

Shouldn't this company be given some medal for being so kind and generous? I quite liked the part "still paid for it."

His wife told the GDN from Kerala that she was glad that her husband was returning and would never want him to be away from her ever again.

"We don't want him staying away from us anymore - we want him to come back home to stay with us," said Mrs Antony.

"I have no idea what went wrong with him because though he did drink occasionally, he was not the sort to pass out or create trouble."

Mr Antony was found staggering near a house in Askar on November 5, after he was allegedly attacked by a taxi driver and his accomplices, who also took his mobile phone.

After sending money home at an exchange centre in Manama, he had earlier gone for drinks at a hotel and then took a taxi to his accommodation in Riffa.

He, however, refused to pay the whole amount the taxi driver had asked for, resulting in an argument.

The driver then took him to an area in Askar and, along with a couple of other men, beat him up.

1) Why was he allegedly attacked by a Taxi Driver and accomplices? The last sentence of the GDN report shows no such ambiguity at all.

2) Some of the Taxi Drivers in Bahrain are extremely rude (especially the ones waiting outside the big hotels). They don't switch on the meter and ask you for more than double the original fare.

3) If Mr. Antony refused to pay the whole amount; shouldn't the taxi driver have driven the car down to the nearest police station?

4) If it is true (which seems very certain) that the Taxi driver and a couple of other men took Mr. Antony to an area in Askar and beat him up and also stole his mobile...

A) Have they arrested the Taxi driver and the other two goons?

B) Have the cops being suspended for dereliction of duty?

Wonder why the newspaper doesn't necessarily see the obvious failure of justice and the gagging of civil rights?

Isn't it all too convenient to blame it on Mr. Antony for causing all the confusion, when a bigger social crime goes unpunished?