The Arab Open University (AOU) in Bahrain that came under attack by opposition thugs earlier this year is set to move to a new location, a report said.

The university campus, located in the Sehla district of the kingdom, was targeted by masked men, who blocked the campus car park and smashed parts of the building's glass and marble frontage, according to the report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

AOU acting director Dr Abdulrahman Al Awadhi said the proposed move, due to take place next April, was not motivated by February's violence.

However, he admitted the new location in A'ali is a "safer" area. He said the upcoming move has been in the works since 2005, adding: "It was delayed, actually. We should have been moving in 2010."

The reasons for the delay were not revealed, but it is understood it was due to financial issues.

"The new campus will be our own, we are currently in a rented place," said Dr Al Awadhi.

"We will have bigger facilities, labs and classrooms, with more technology involved in the classrooms. There will be more students because the area will be almost 10 times the size of the current one."

Measuring approximately 22,000 sq m, the new university will be purpose-built, better organised and boast a multi-storey car park for student use.

"I hope that it will be safer there," said Dr Al Awadhi. "Also because a lot of schools and other universities are around, it's open and there're not many problems in that area."

The university's building was targeted on February 21, when vandals locked entry and exit gates and blocked the car park, denying employees and students access to the campus.

They then smashed the glass façade and broke parts of the marble decorating the front of the building.

Sehla, where the AOU's Bahrain branch first opened in March 2003, was a focus of violent protest even before the unrest in 2011.

The GDN reported in 2007 that youths carrying placards and torching tyres were chased off the streets in the village by scores of policemen.

Last month, around 20 workers were forced to run for their lives after thugs pelted a residential building in Sehla with Molotov cocktails. – TradeArabia News Service