CAIRO, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian police arrested a wanted senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of the group's massive protests aiming to reinstate Mohamed Morsi as president, official news agency MENA reported Thursday.
The security forces arrested Mohamed al-Beltagi in a small apartment in Tersa district in Giza governorate, along with Khaled al-Azhary, the former minister of manpower and immigration.
Beltagi has been transferred to Tora prison in southern Cairo, where many other Muslim Brotherhood leaders are detained.
Known as the president of Rabaa Square where pro-Morsi protesters had rallied for fifty days, Beltagi was the latest Brotherhood leader detained in a wide-ranging crackdown on the Islamist movement.
In early July, prosecutors had issued a warrant for Beltagi on the charge of inciting violence. Then he was referred in absentia to a criminal court on the same charge as well as for murdering peaceful anti-Morsi protesters.
In a pre-recorded video aired by Al-Jazeera TV Thursday, the Brotherhood leader urged Morsi's loyalists to be patient and resistant.
He stressed Morsi's supporters are defending the people's right to live a free and dignified life and their will to choose their leader, condemning on what he described as a "military coup" that led to the ouster of Morsi.
The arrest came one day before the massive protests called by the National Alliance for Supporting Legitimacy, a pro-Morsi bloc, in an attempt to press for the reinstatement of the "legitimate leader."
The alliance, comprising 33 Islamic movements including the Brotherhood, also announced a "peaceful civil disobedience plan" which will start from Friday.
However, "Brotherhood without Violence," a breakaway group from the mother movement of Muslim Brotherhood, called for aborting all acts of protests on Friday.
Two weeks ago, Egyptian security forces dispersed two major pro- Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza, and the ensuing clashes between security men and Morsi's loyalists killed nearly 1,000 people nationwide, including about 100 policemen.
Egyptian police stressed its readiness to tackle any violations ahead of the protests planned by Islamists, state-TV reported Thursday.
"The Interior Ministry will use live ammunition based on the legitimate right of defense," ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif said in a televised statement, referring to security forces' responsibility to protect the country's institutions.
On the planned protests on Friday, Latif said "the Interior Ministry asserted its readiness to deal firmly with any attempts to attack governmental, religious, police premises according to the law."
He also urged all citizens to unite and be alert about the hazards threatening Egypt's national security.
Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, another Islamist group, urged on Thursday Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters who are expected to stage several protests on Friday.
In a press release, the group asserted the people's right to peacefully protest and held authorities responsible for the protesters' safety, while calling on protesters to act peacefully.
The General Federation of NGOs agreed on Thursday to disband the "Muslim Brotherhood Association" which was officially registered in March.
In a statement, the federation said it has notified Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi of its approval to speed up the dissolution of the association, which was set up in violation of the law.
The decision came in light of the violence perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood against citizens and the use of its headquarters to smuggle weapons, the statement added.
Twenty-eight Muslim Brotherhood administrative and organizational members were arrested on Thursday with stolen service pistols in their possession in the governorates of Matrouh, Fayoum, Aswan, Qena, Assiut and Beheira.
