A group of women demonstrated in the Sudanese capital yesterday to demand the release of scores of protesters arrested last month, as three journalists were detained in a separate rally.

Around 50 women, among them relatives of those held since anti-government protests on January 30, protested outside the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) building despite a heavy police presence, shouting: “No to terrorism, no to injustice.”

As many as 130 anti-riot police were deployed near the demonstrators, who carried pictures of their loved ones and vowed to stay as long as they could.

“We’re not going to stop, because this is a bad case of injustice,” said Habab Mubarak, daughter of a leading figure in the opposition Umma party.

“We have received information about the detainees being tortured. We heard they are being sprayed with water and electrocuted,” she said, adding that around 70 of those arrested in the recent protests, including her two brothers, were still in custody.

Also yesterday, two cameramen and an AFP photographer were held for several hours at a nearby protest organised by journalists seeking the release of arrested colleagues.

At least one of them later walked free, but his equipment and identity card were confiscated.

The latest demonstrations come amid a crackdown on opposition activity and followed Friday’s ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of mass protests there.

On Thursday, riot police intercepted the same group of women as they headed for Khartoum’s main security building to deliver a petition to NISS chief Mohammed Atta demanding that the detainees be formally tried or released.

A spate of localised but vocal protests calling for regime change, civil liberties and an end to soaring price rises erupted in Khartoum and other northern cities two weeks ago, organised by students via the internet.

Police used tear gas and batons to disperse the protesters and made more than 100 arrests.

Senior Sudanese officials have said they do not fear Egypt- and Tunisia-style popular uprisings, and described the demonstrations in Sudan as illegal and isolated.

President Omar al-Bashir on Friday evening congratulated the Egyptian people on the “triumph of their revolution,” in some of Khartoum’s first official comments on the tumultuous events taking place in Sudan’s northern neighbour.