A court has ordered the dissolution of Bahrain’s main secular opposition group, as the Gulf state continues a crackdown on dissent.

The National Democratic Action Society (Waad) was accused of “advocating violence, supporting terrorism and incitement to encourage crimes”.

Amnesty International said the allegations were “baseless and absurd”.

It comes less than a year after the main group representing the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s Shia majority was banned.

Bahrain has been wracked by deadly unrest since security forces crushed pro-democracy demonstrations mainly led by Shia during the Arab Spring in 2011.

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On Wednesday, the official Bahrain News Agency cited the justice ministry as saying that the High Civil Court had ordered the dissolution of Waad.

It found Waad’s use of the term “martyrs” when describing three men who were executed in January for killing police officers had violated the Law on Political Associations.

The court also ruled that Waad had broken the law by expressing solidarity with the Wefaq National Islamic Society when the Shia group was dissolved last July, and also by announcing that it “rejected the 2002 constitution as illegitimate”.