It was perhaps the longest 30km journey ever gone through by a group of Malaysian journalists here.
What could have been a mere 30-minute drive from Cairo International Airport to their hotel, turned out to be a nightmarish ride as a group of armed youths stopped their van on Friday night and seized their passports and belongings.
The 12 Malaysian journalists and four Putera 1Malaysia Club members, who were in the van driven by an Egyptian, were passing along an elevated highway near Tahrir Square, when a group of five local youths, carrying iron rods, sticks and various other weapons, stopped their vehicle at about 10pm (4am Saturday in Malaysia).
The group then rummaged through the vehicle and demanded their passports.
They also ransacked the bag belonging to a female officer of the Malaysian Immigration Department, who was also in the van provided by the Malaysian
Embassy in here.
Tensions rose when one of the youths tried to take money inside the officer's bag but handed it back when the Malaysian group protested.
The youths however spared the bag containing a notebook computer belonging to Bernama journalist Luqman Nul Hakim Mazlan.
They later ordered the driver to take the van to their inspection point and then to a military police station before releasing them.
But that was not the end of their trouble as they still had to go through nearly 30 roadblocks before finally arriving at their hotel three hours later.
Meanwhile, the official car carrying the Malaysian Ambassador to Egypt Datuk Dr Mohd Fakhrudin Abdul Mukti, had to turn back to the airport because of the roadblocks mounted by armed groups.
M. Hamzah Jamaludin, a New Straits Times journalist, who was also in the van, said roadblocks mounted by civilians had been taking place regularly since
the past few days.
"And they are becoming more aggressive. Previously they had never ransacked bags, especially those belonging to women," he said.
NSTP Group photographer Fauzan Jaafar said it was no longer safe for cameramen and photographers to carry their equipment around because it might get seized by the military or the local groups.
He said he had left his camera at the Malaysian ambassador's official car for fear that it might be taken by the protesters.
