CAIRO: BBC journalist Shaimaa Khalil, who was arrested on Monday during the military's crackdown on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square, was released from custody on Tuesday afternoon, she reported on her Twitter account. Khalil was arrested while attempting to take photos of the crackdown, which left a few injured and over 100 people arrested, local activists said. “We are very concerned at the detention of Shaimaa Khalil in Cairo. She is a fine journalist, simply doing her job. We are doing all we can to secure her release,” the BBC's press office said on Monday. Khalil had been delivering updates from Tahrir on Twitter before her arrest. “'Careful!' someone just told me. ‘They arrest anyone taking photos,” she wrote. Witnesses said soldiers and police beat demonstrators and broke mobile phones, targeting anyone taking pictures. A legal rights group, the Front for Defending Protester Detainees in Egypt, said that more than 80 people were arrested. The protesters in Tahrir had refused to end their sit-in after political factions withdrew for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started in Egypt on Tuesday. BM
