Manama: Thousands of jubilant Bahrainis returned on Saturday to Manama's Pearl Square, the focal point of bloody anti-regime demonstrations, after police and troops withdrew in what appeared to be a conciliatory move.
After the security forces had pulled out, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa ordered that they were to stay away from demonstrators.
Salman, who is deputy commander of armed forces, ordered "all security forces to immediately withdraw from assembly areas," a statement carried by BNA state agency said.
It added that he had also asked the "crowds to leave" to start a "new phase of national action that would bring together all parties."
The latest developments come as pressure grows on the pro-western, strategically vital Gulf kingdom to negotiate with the Shiite-led opposition, which has been demanding the current government resign before talks offered by the king can begin.
Protesters began erecting tents in the square after removing barbed wire and pouring in from three streets.
Police, who had earlier fired tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent people from getting in from one of the streets, eventually followed the army's lead and withdrew as well.
Some demonstrators were evacuated to Salmaniya hospital after inhaling gas."I am happy we are back; I told you we would be back," 23-year-old Ibrahim told reporters in the square from which protesters were driven in a deadly police raid on Thursday and the army moved in with threats of firm measures to enforce security.
But three days later, the army returned to its bases on today afternoon. "People want the regime to fall," chanted demonstrators gathered at the roundabout, saying they wanted 'peaceful' protests.
Earlier, the opposition had rejected the crown prince's offer of dialogue saying it would join talks only after troops withdrew and the cabinet quit.
The Islamic National Accord Association, which is boycotting parliament to protest the army's iron-fisted response to the protests sweeping the country, said 95 people were wounded on Thursday, of whom three were "clinically dead."
"To consider dialogue, the government must resign and the army should withdraw from the streets," said INAA parliamentary leader Abdel Jalil Khalil Ibrahim. "What we're seeing now is not the language of dialogue but the language of force."