VIDEO l 4.54 min

Over 4,000 protesters gathered at Padang Merbok today to condemn the coup d'état in Egypt and the killing of about 600 civilians.

They urged that ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi be reinstated as president because he was democratically elected into power.

pas youth protest against egypt coup mohamad mat sabu "Egyptians want an Islamic government," said one of the speakers at the rally, PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, noting that the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, was voted into power despite having little party resources.

"There were no Black 505 rallies (like in Malaysia), meaning that he had won a legitimate election," he said amid chants of "Long Live Morsi; down with (coup leader Abdul Fattah al-) Sisi."

Also present at the protest organised by PAS Youth was DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke, who urged an emergency parliamentary seating to condemn the violence in Egypt.

He also criticised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's silence on the matter, chiding him for being able to find time to comment on alleged irregularities in DAP's party elections but not to condemn Egypt's military government.

pas youth protest against egypt coup 1 The rally kicked off with afternoon prayers at about 5.40pm with about 300 participants, followed by speeches by about 20 speakers - predominantly from PAS but also from NGOs - until evening prayers at about 7.30pm.

By then, the crowd has swelled to over 4,000, though organisers claim it to be around 10,000.

The event ended at about 9.20pm with a speech and a prayer session led by PAS president Hadi Awang.

In his speech, he condemned the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation' (OIC) silence over crisis, as well as some world leaders lauding the Egyptian military's crackdown on the ‘terrorists'.

Protests against Morsi

pas youth protest against egypt coup anthony loke 2 The crisis in Egypt started July 3 with al-Sisi ousting Morsi, with an interim government led by the country's chief justice put in place until elections are held.

The move followed million-strong protests against Morsi for supposedly neglecting economic and social problems.

pas youth protest against egypt coup 3 Morsi's supporters then took to the streets to demand his reinstatement and clashed violently - and fatally - with security forces from time to time.

This reached a climax when security forces moved in to clear the pro-Morsi protestor's camps by force.

The official death toll for the Aug 14 operation stands at over 600, although the Muslim Brotherhood claims that the actual number exceeds 2,000.

Dozens of security forces personnel were also killed.