"We will not accept any dialogue with he who kills us in cold blood"

Bahrain protesters were gearing up for a mass rally Friday to honor the seven martyrs of a deadly police crackdown as an anti-regime campaign entered its 12th day.
  
The mourning day will be marked by processions in various parts of Manama. All processions will culminate at Pearl Square where a sit-in by thousands of protesters has been going on for the last eight days.

After days of angry protests, demonstrators milled about Pearl Square early Friday waving the red-and-white flag of Bahrain. Many protesters, demanding an end to the Al-Khalifa dynasty which has ruled for two centuries, were chatting, preparing food, or relaxing in the tent city that has sprung up in the square.

Signs hanging around the square signaled that the protests were far from over: "We will not accept any dialogue with he who kills us in cold blood," declared one banner hanging from an overpass. "A free state and a happy people," read another, while a third demanded the government "free all political detainees."
Leading Bahraini clerics have called on the masses to rally in Pearl Square on Friday to "mourn the martyrs," AFP reported on Wednesday.

The mourning day move comes after a royal pardon of 308 political prisoners and those taken in custody over security-related crimes.

Meanwhile, top US military officer Mike Mullen arrived in Bahrain on Thursday.

“Obviously Bahrain has been important to us for decades,” Mullen told reporters shortly before his arrival in Manama. “They are a critical ally and have been for a long time,” he added.

Bahraini troops have raided the protest camp in Pearl Square the night before the massive rally as they were asleep.

The public, enraged by the government's brutal attempts to suppress the protests, has set up a tent city in the square -- which they now call the “Martyrs' Roundabout” -- camping out for the past five nights to persist on their demands