Rights activists in Bahrain have launched their own "I Can't Breathe" campaign, taking up a slogan adopted by American protesters outraged by the police killing of an African-American man.

However, the term is not being used in Bahrain to highlight police brutality - but instead the actions of anti-government radicals behind bombings, Molotov cocktail attacks and tyre burning, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

It is being spearheaded by the Bahrain Human Rights Group (BHRG), which is using the hashtag '#ICantBreathe on Twitter to raise awareness of acts of violence against security forces and the public.

"We have launched this campaign to draw the attention of the world to the situation in Bahrain and say that not being able to breathe is not limited to the US," BHRG general co-ordinator Faisal Fulad told the GDN.

"We faced two terror attacks this week which took two lives - a policeman and an innocent civilian, an elderly citizen.

"The situation is such that we can't be sure what is hidden next to us while we walk along the roads in Bahrain - people are scared to walk to the mosque, cleaners are afraid to empty the trash bins.

"There are tyres and trash being burnt every other day while we drive past, there is the threat of a Molotov cocktail at every corner.

"Every Bahraini says 'I can't breathe', so we are throwing light on this uneasy situation and we want the world to know that we really cannot breathe, literally.

"The environment is polluted with smoke, which again makes us say 'I can't breathe'."

The phrase "I can't breathe" was spoken 11 times by Eric Garner before he died in New York in July, after police officer Daniele Pantaleo put him in a chokehold.

Garner had been stopped on suspicion of selling illegal cigarettes and Pantaleo was acquitted by a grand jury on December 3, sparking a nationwide outcry - particularly after a grand jury decided not to prosecute Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting dead 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown in August.

However, Fulad said the purpose of the Bahrain 'I Can't Breathe' campaign was to illustrate the silence of opposition leaders and religious clerics amid violence on the streets.

"Our aim is to highlight the silence of Al Wefaq and clerics like Shaikh Isa Qassim, the involvement of Hizbollah and Iran in our internal affairs," he said.

It ends today at 7pm and the group plans to submit a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about opposition violence in Bahrain.

"In the letter we will highlight the fact that we concluded the national elections successfully and have elected people for the next four years, but they will not be able to serve the country unless this violence stops," added Fulad.

The BHRG is a joint body consisting of members of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, Bahrain Jurists' Society, Al Karama Society and the Bahrain Free Labour Union Federation (Al Hurr). - TradeArabia News Service