CAIRO - Egyptian police have detained 400 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood following nationwide protests against President Hosni Mubarak, state news agency MENA said Thursday.
"The detained people insisted on gathering and demonstrating without authorization, thus threatening public order," a police official was quoted as saying.
For its part, the banned-but-tolerated Islamist group said 1,546 of its followers had been arrested.
"Those arrested in the Sharqia governorate (north of Cairo) were deprived of food and medicine," said a statement sent to AFP.
"In the governorate of Menia (in Upper Egypt), they were mistreated and physically harmed," it added.
The group also condemned the "violence" exerted by security forces during the protests where "participants were beaten, tear gas fired and water cannons used, resulting in the serious injuries of hundreds who were denied access to hospitals."
"We shall continue to fulfill our legitimate and national duty. We will not give not up our demands for rights for our people, in peaceful and civilized ways."
Judiciary sources said 160 Muslim brothers were in preventive detention Thursday for 15 days for "protesting against authorities and harm caused to police and security officers."
Pro-reform activists have escalated their campaign for constitutional and political reforms in the country in recent weeks, with many calling on the veteran leader to step down when his mandate expires later this year.
Thousands of Islamist protesters denounced on Thursday the state-owned media as "corrupt" and chanted slogans calling for the abrogation of emergency laws that have been in place since the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat.
"No to dictatorship", "Yes to freedom" and "Islam is the solution," were among the slogans heard in the demonstrations throughout Egypt.
05/05/2005 14:08 GMT