The Moroccan forces disperse protest by the opposition

RABAT - Moroccan forces used truncheons to disperse a demonstration was on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Kingdom Rabat on Sunday, several injured, said a Reuters journalist on the scene.

Dozens of demonstrators belonging to the anti-Government movement February 20 tried to organize a picnic of protest from what they claim is a secret government detention centre in the region of Temara, where are are Islamists.

The Government denies that it runs secret detention centres. She later obtained permission for the Attorney General and the national Council of human rights to inspect the headquarters of the domestic intelligence service, said of the MAP news agency.

Police hunted riot the demonstrators before the rally could begin, beating some with long rubber truncheons. Police said that no arrests were made.

At an event later in the outskirts of Rabat, security forces have beaten into a coma one of the founders of the movement on 20 February, Osama ElKhlifi, a doctor and militant said. No independent verification of the report was immediately available.

February 20 is related to the reform demonstrations and uprisings this year elsewhere in the Arab world.

"It is the latest in a series of violent interventions by the security forces, which shows that the authorities are no longer tolerate the Group peaceful demonstrations," said Nizar Benmate of the movement.

Spokesman for the head of Government, Khalid Naciri said by the radio station Atlantic soldier who protest Temara was interrupted because he had been prohibited.

He denied there was a secret detention centre, in the area saying that the building of the finger by the demonstrators was a local government administrative office.

DENIAL OF GOVERNMENT

Moroccan officials deny the allegations made by opposition groups and some human rights activists that they run secret detention centres and to say to all detainees are treated in strict accordance with the law.

Human rights activists say Islamic militant political and others have been held and tortured at the building of Temara.

The map did not say when the visit of inspection of Temara would take place. King Mohammed has created the Council of the rights of man in March in protests.

The Agency said about 100 "extremists" blocked a road in the city of the North of Tangier. He reported an incident similar to FEZ where he said that some protesters method knives and flags of al-Qaeda. No there was no independent confirmation of the reports.

Some 50,000 people gathered in the evening for a pro-reform rally in Casablanca, said organizers. Independent sources put the number at about 15,000.

The Union of the national press criticized the authorities for rough treatment of journalists to the protest of Temara. Security forces beat two journalists, two other manhandled and confiscated some equipment, a Reuters witness said.