CAIRO, Jan 22 (Aswat Masriya) – Security forces arrested 16 after dispersing a protest organised in Downtown Cairo on Thursday afternoon, a police official said.

An eyewitness told Aswat Masriya that dozens from the Ahrar youth group held a rally in Downtown Cairo, before it was dispersed by security forces.  

According to the eyewitness the protesters lit fireworks and were carrying a sign with the name Ahrar written on it. The youth group is loosely affiliated with jailed Islamist preacher and politician Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail.

Ahrar posted on social media that the chants of the people “demand the fall of the regime” were being echoed in Downtown Cairo’s Talaat Harb Square, where the protest took place.

It added that the ministry of interior is “carrying out random arrests” of passersby and called on “revolutionary” youth to take some action elsewhere in Cairo in order to ease the pressure on youth in Downtown Cairo.

However, Essam Saad, the director of the police’s investigation unit in Cairo said that the 16 arrested belong to two different groups, the Muslim Brotherhood and the 6 April youth movement.

He said they were arrested for rioting and for attempting to organise a massive rally, while in possession of fireworks.  

A fire broke out in the vicinity of the square, the cause of which has yet to be identified. Firefighters eventually extinguished the fire.