Reformers in Sudan's ruling party have told President Omar al-Bashir that a deadly crackdown on protests over fuel price hikes was a betrayal of his regime's Islamic foundations.
Sudanese demonstrators called President Omar al-Bashir a "killer" on Saturday, the sixth day of protests sparked by fuel price hikes in a nation already burdened by economic pain and war.
The latest protest came as reformist members of Bashir's National Congress Party told him that the deadly crackdown on demonstrators betrayed his regime's Islamic foundations.
"Bashir, you are a killer," shouted about 2,000 men, women and youths after the burial of Salah Mudathir, 28, shot dead during a protest on Friday and hailed by demonstrators as a martyr.
"Freedom! Freedom!" they chanted.
Authorities say 33 people have died over the past week, but activists and international rights groups say at least 50 were gunned down.
An AFP reporter saw state security agents round up six people and put them into pickup trucks after police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators on Saturday.
On Friday, the interior ministry said 600 people had been arrested since the beginning of the protests "for participating in acts of vandalism".
REFORMERS SPEAK OUT
"The (economic) package that was implemented by the government, and the crackdown against those opposed to it, is far from mercy and justice and the right of peaceful expression," the 31 prominent reformers said in a letter to Bashir which they made public on Saturday.
The lead signatory was Ghazi Salaheddine, a former presidential adviser, but others included former armed forces Brigadier Mohammed Ibrahim.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in April for allegedly leading a coup plot against the regime last year. Bashir later granted amnesty to him and others involved.
Other retired military and police officers, members of parliament, and a former cabinet minister who was a key figure in the 1989 coup which brought Bashir to power also signed the document.
