end of 2007, coinciding with rising political tension and street demonstrations against discrimination against members of the majority Shi'a community. HRW found that government officials appeared to be using a "repertoire" of techniques to cause pain and elicit confessions from security suspects. These included "the use of electro-shock devices, suspension in painful positions, beating the soles of the feet (falaka), and beatings of the head, torso, and limbs", as well as threats to kill detainees or rape them or members of their families, in violation of Bahrain's obligations as a state party to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention Against Torture) and other international treaties and as the prohibition of torture in Bahraini law. During opposition street protests in Shi'a neighbourhoods and villages around Manama in December 2007 a protester was allegedly asphyxiated by tear gas and confrontations, provoking further confrontations with security forces. Following an incident in the village of Jidhafs Bahraini human rights activists reported claims by detainees of severe beatings, electric shock, prolonged suspension in painful positions and other forms of abuse amounting to torture or other illegal treatment. These claims were officially denied. Detainees arrested in March and April 2008 following clashes in and around the village of Karzakan that had resulted in the death of a National Security Agency officer in disputed circumstances also alleged torture and ill-treatment. Detainees arrested in December 2008 who were alleged by the authorities to have been trained in the use of explosives and sabotage techniques or to have been recruited by the opposition Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy to encourage violent unrest also complained of being subjected to torture and ill-treatment. When they were brought to court medical examinations of a number of detainees found evidence of injuries consistent with the detainees' allegations. In a letter to Bahrain's Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, Amnesty International called for an urgent and independent investigation into allegations that, soon after their arrest in December 2008, 13 individuals held incommunicado at the headquarters of the National Security Apparatus in Manama were tortured with electric shocks and beatings and by being suspended by the wrists for long periods. The detainees were reported to have been transferred to the "Dry Dock" Prison (the Ministry of Interior's Short-Term Detention Unit) only after they had made "confessions". Amnesty International called for