CAIRO — Egyptian authorities are currently on heightened security alert amid calls by exiled Egyptian contractor Mohamed Ali to protest in order to demand the protection of the Nile waters. These calls coincide with the approaching eighth anniversary of the June 30 Revolution marking the military-led ouster of late Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi. 

Security forces, secret police forces and women's police are deployed in the streets of Cairo and the main squares across the Egyptian governorates. Passersby have been randomly arrested and searched, and some were even asked to show the content of their personal accounts on social media.

Ahmed Nasser, who works as a reporter for a news website in downtown Cairo, which he did not want to name, said that as he was walking near Tahrir Square on the evening of June 10, police stopped him and questioned him about the reasons for his presence in the square. He was searched and forced to show his cellphone. The policemen checked his posts on his social media accounts to find out his position on the Egyptian regime.

Nasser, who was detained and questioned by police as they searched his bag and phone while returning from work, told Al-Monitor, “This is not an isolated incident. Many citizens like me were held up waiting for the officer to finish going through their phones and bags. Some got back their personal belongings and left, and others were waiting for the decision of the officer in charge," adding that “They warned me not to return to Tahrir Square or the surrounding streets in the coming weeks, in light of the state of security in anticipation of protests. I left but others who were stopped by the police were not free to go and didn't know what would happen to them.”