Bloggers among 95 nabbed over Egypt strike
CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian authorities arrested 95 people including politicians and bloggers on Sunday for inciting unrest by calling for a general strike around the country, a security official told AFP.
"Ninety-five people have been arrested around the country, including in Cairo and Alexandria, for inciting unrest," the official said, adding that workers had failed to heed the call to strike.
Among those detained are opposition leaders including Islamist journalist Mohammed Abdel Qudoos and Magdi Hussein who heads the Labour party, suspended since 2000 after its mouthpiece published articles critical of the government.
Bloggers and members of other opposition parties including the Nasserist and the liberal Ghad parties as well as from the protest movement Kefaya have also been detained.
Despite official claims that the strike action had failed, traffic around the country was unusually light for a Sunday, the first day of the Egyptian working week, AFP reporters said.
Some classes at the American University in Cairo were cancelled and attendance was low at schools and universities, a security source said.
It is unclear who initiated the call which snowballed after some 25,000 employees at the textile plant in Mahalla announced plans to strike from Sunday over low salaries and price hikes.
On Saturday the interior ministry threatened "immediate and firm measures against any attempt to demonstrate, disrupt road traffic or the running of public establishments and against all attempts to incite such acts."
