Egyptian authorities have freed some 950 former members of the militant Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) from detention in the past six weeks, including 300 on Tuesday, police sources said on Wednesday.
The Egyptian government detained many thousands of Gama'a members or sympathisers in the 1990s, when the group was waging a low-level guerrilla war against the security forces, mainly in the south of the country.
Hundreds have come out of detention over the years after renouncing the use of violence to overthrow the government. Gama'a leaders declared a truce with the government in 1997, after an attack on tourists at a pharaonic temple in Luxor.
The big release on Tuesday was to mark the birthday of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him), a traditional occasion for setting prisoners free, the police sources said.
An official security source, cited by the state news agency MENA, said that 950 could be the number of people released "over long past periods". He gave no indication of the time frame.
Another official source, who asked not to be named, said that 2,000 Gama'a members remain in detention in Egypt, among a total of 12,000 people held without charge under emergency law, mainly for political reasons.
The government has never said in public how many people are in detention without trial or charge. The US State Department cites estimates of 10,000 detainees in all.
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