CAIRO (AFP) — A nationwide call for a day of protest against price hikes and curbs on freedom across Egypt on Sunday failed to draw any response, a security official said.
"There is no sign of protest anywhere. But there is tighter security, with riot police trucks stationed in downtown Cairo and in (the northern industrial city of) Mahalla just in case," the official told AFP.
Egyptians went to work as normal and Cairo traffic was heavy, AFP reporters said, despite a month-long call by cyber-dissidents to stay at home or wear black as a sign of mourning for the state of the country.
The most visible sign of protest came from about 15 people chanting "Down, down with Hosni Mubarak" outside the Lawyers' Syndicate in downtown Cairo, an AFP journalist reported.
The call has been circulating via email, text messages and through the social networking website Facebook and was meant to coincide with President Hosni Mubarak's 80th birthday.
It also received the support of the country's main opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
A day of nationwide action called for April 6 saw riots erupt in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla where three people died and hundreds were detained after demonstrators pulled down posters of Mubarak.
Esraa Abdel Fattah, 27, who created the Facebook group calling for the April 6 strike, was arrested and jailed for three weeks for "inciting unrest."
In recent months Egypt has seen a number of strikes and protests against low salaries and price rises that have been the one of the most serious challenges to the Mubarak regime.
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