Police have arrested four self-ruling activists who took part in a protest against the detention of Hassan Ba-Oum, who heads the supreme council of the Southern Movement, a rights activist who is close to the family told the Yemen Post.
Police accused them of calling for an illegal protest and upsetting public by demanding the release of Hassan Ba-Oum whose movement wanted increased autonomy for the south, according to the same sources.
Ba-Oum's arrest has sparked a wave of protests across southern Yemen, locals told the Yemen Post, adding that thousands of people marched across the region carrying the former flag of the south.
In Al-Dale province, five people were hurt including two soldiers due to the arrest of Ba-Oum.
On Friday, thousands of the southern movement supporters rallied in the streets of Maifah of Sabwa province demanding the release of Hassan Ba-Oum, his son and Hassan Zaid Bin-Yahya.
For his part, the former ex-vice president of Yemen Ali Salem Al-Baidh who leads the southern movement form exile pledged to keep up struggle and vowed the southern movement of self-ruling in Southern Yemen. "Sana'a regime will not stop the southern movement from a nonviolent struggle against the government," he said in statement posted in one of the southern movement websites.
Yemeni analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case believe the unrest in southern Yemen witnessed a new turning point as exiled leaders broke their 15-year old silence and declared themselves persons in charge of the southern movement which calls for the separation of the south.