Nic Robertson and his team are the first foreign journalists to travel to Awamia, hometown of executed cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. A microcosm of wider sectarian tensions, the town has become the epicenter of Shia anger in Saudi.

Awamia, Saudi Arabia (CNN) The look on the police colonel's face said everything.

"I can't believe it," he said, mopping the perspiration from his face.

We'd just stepped out of one of his hot, monstrous-looking armored personnel carriers at the end of an hour-long tour of arguably Saudi Arabia's most dangerous town, Awamia.

It's a Shia town of about 25,000 people, formerly home to executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al Nimr

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"Normally we are attacked all the time," the colonel told me.

It had taken a lot of persuasion to get into to this tiny Shia town, which sits above the Kingdom's vast oil wealth in the east.

Our normally desk-bound government escorts from the Ministry of Information in Riyadh were visibly shaken by the idea they might have to accompany us.

Death wish

They clearly thought we must have a death wish.

Both they and Ministry of Interior officials warned us it was too dangerous and initially refused when we said we wanted to go there, suggesting other, quieter Shia towns nearby.

We visited those too -- and apart from the religious flags that flutter from a few rooftops, they look and feel much like the rest of this vast country.

We toured poorer neighborhoods and those with plush looking villas, fancy cars, palm-lined streets and talked to Shia residents and a Shia mayor. None was complimentary about Awamia.

Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Iranian protesters hold portraits of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr as they confront riot police during a demonstration against his execution by Saudi authorities on Sunday, January 3, outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Iran. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters that Saudi Arabia is severing ties with Iran after an attack on the embassy. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Tehran's police chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, center right, tries to disperse protesters in front of Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Tehran on January 3. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Iranian demonstrators burn representations of the U.S. and Israeli flags during a demonstration in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran on January 3. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Iranian security guards Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest on January 3. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Protesters set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, January 2, during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities. Nimr was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in Saudi Arabia's east, an oil-rich region where the Shiite minority of an estimated 2 million people complains of marginalization. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Smoke billows from the windows of the burning Saudi Embassy on January 2. A CNN producer in Tehran said some protesters made it inside the building, setting fire and ransacking some records. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric A firefighter sprays water on the flames on January 2 in Tehran, Iran, a Shiite-majority nation, issued a statement deploring the execution and warning that Saudi Arabia would pay a heavy price for its policies. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Iranian protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehranon January 2. Saudi Arabia said it executed "terrorists" and told Iran to stay out of its internal affairs. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric Several protesters were arrested, police officers at the embassy told CNN. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute cleric There was some damage near the back of the embassy building, witnesses and a police officer said. None of the Saudi diplomatic staff was in the embassy at the time. Hide Caption 10 of 10

Yet now, after the long debate about access to Awamia -- with the Riyadh officials finally relenting, but only on their terms, that we ride in the heavily armored police trucks -- here was the colonel begging us to come back the next day.

It was a total reversal of roles. Now we wanted to leave and he wanted us to stay.

He couldn't believe we weren't shot at; if we stuck around we'd see the firepower they face every day, bullets that have killed his officers.

When I met a few hours later with the brother of the executed Shia cleric, he and his translator had wry smiles on their faces. They weren't surprised at all, they said.

A town 'misrepresented'

We'd called al-Nimr's brother earlier in the day asking if he would talk to us. He knew we were coming -- and so did the rest of the town. Indeed within minutes of our arrival, a video was posted online that police believed was of our convoy.

Al-Nimr told me one of his brothers had even driven by and flipped a victory sign at us. I'd seen the same man smiling broadly as he drove slowly by while we filmed at a checkpoint.

But beneath the smiles and bonhomie, al-Nimr's brother bristles at the fact government minders insisted we travel in an armored convoy.

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He called it an insult, saying that it misrepresents the town, creating the impression of conflict.

He's not just angry about that and every armored police patrol that enters the town, he's angry that his brother's body lies in a grave in an unknown place. Despite al-Nimr's execution a few days before, he told us the remains were never returned to family.

His translator said tensions in the town go back to 1996 and land disputes between townspeople and Aramco, the state-owned oil company.

Government officials point to 2006 when residents took to the streets in support of Hezbollah as Israel attacked them in Lebanon.

Each side has its own narrative -- but what is clear is the sectarian divide between this town and the country's ruling Sunni elite is growing.

Corrosive disconnect

The executed cleric's brother says the solution needs to be political but what we saw in Awamia has gone way past that already.

As we entered the town, the huge armored trucks sway and bounce over the physical manifestation of that divide.

A big mechanical digger blocked half the road where it was being used to gouge a trench to cut the town off from government control.

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At the other end of town another trench had been cut in the road. A police officer with us said his first job that morning had been to fill it in, reconnecting this apparently recalcitrant community to the rest of the country.

Of course not being allowed to walk the streets can skew your picture of life in this hamlet. But what we saw confirms the polarizing and corrosive disconnect the Kingdom has with a small -- but vocal and growing -- number of its population.

This view was only reinforced a few hours after we left Awamia and got reports of heavy gunfire and loud explosions. The police colonel may well have been right: had we stuck around, we'd have seen what has them all so worried.