A member of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) has been arrested by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service in Kadugli town in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, reportedly because of critical views toward the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Adam Mohamed Amin, who is a leading figure in the PCP in the state, was reportedly picked up at the market by the security service and taken into custody on Tuesday.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj yesterday, the State PCP Secretary General Mahgoub Sir El Dar Saleh confirmed that his colleague was picked at the market in Kadugli town and arrested by the security agents.

“According to my information, Mohamed’s arrest had something to do with his critical views about the Rapid Support Forces in the state -- so he was accused of using the phone to incite the citizens against the RSF," he explained.

He pointed out that the arrested opposition leader who is also a secondary school teacher in Kadugli is now in detention waiting for investigations, and he has not yet been charged.

Mahguoub said the accusations against him were baseless. He called for the immediate release of the accused politician. He said the party will wait until Thursday. If he not released then they will resort to other means to secure his release, he said.

PCP is headed by Sheikh Hassan al Turabi, a key intellectual in the Islamic movement in Sudan and leading ifgure in the ruling party between 1989 and 1999, before he was pushed out of the party after having differences with President Omar al Bashir.

The party earlier this year agreed to join the ruling NCP in participating in a ‘national dialogue’ involving broad participation of the opposition and other political forces, but tensions between the NCP and Umma Party have recently stalled the dialogue.

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