DOZENS of Shi’ite clerics demonstrated in Bahrain today against the detention of opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman by the Sunni authorities.

Lawyer Abdullah al-Shamlan said his client had been accused of “inciting hatred against the regime and calling for its overthrow by force.”

News of the arrest drew hundreds of Salman supporters onto the streets of Shi’ite villages outside the capital Manama, prompting clashes with security forces.

Police fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse the protesters.

And clerics gathered in Imam al-Sadeq mosque in al-Guful village yesterday, brandishing photographs of the detained opposition leader.

The al-Wefaq party has demanded his immediate release, warning that his detention was “a dangerous adventure that will complicate the political situation in Bahrain.”

Salman was re-elected as party leader on Friday and marked the occasion by leading a protest outside Manama.

The Gulf kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty but has a mainly Shi’ite population, has been gripped by sporadic violence ever since the authorities crushed month-long protests led by al-Wefaq in 2011.

At least 89 people have been killed and hundreds have been arrested and tried, according to human rights groups.

But authorities have rejected al-Wefaq’s demand for an elected prime minister to replace the current government dominated by the ruling family.

Al-Wefaq’s boycott of a November election it dismissed as a farce was followed by a court order banning the party.