RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s police have shot dead three men wanted for “terrorist” attacks in the country’s Shia-majority east, the interior ministry of the kingdom said on Friday.

The men — two Saudis and a Bahraini — were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police in the city of Saihat in the district of Qatif on July 14, the ministry said.

Police seized three machine guns, a pistol, ammunition and more than 10 kilos of explosives, official news agency SPA reported a ministry spokesman as saying.

He said the men were wanted for their involvement in deadly attacks against the police, as well as an attack on a vehicle used to transport cash, abductions and weapons trafficking.

Al-Jazirah newspaper on July 15 reported the death of one of the Saudis, Jaafar al-Mobireek, killed in Qatif, which has seen a string of attacks on security forces in recent weeks.

Most of Saudi Arabia’s Shias live in the oil-rich east, where they have long complained of marginalisation.

The area has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when Shia protests erupted to demand equality in the Gulf kingdom.

Authorities have blamed the violence on “terrorists” and drug traffickers.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017