Emergency laws grant Syria's notorious security services wide-ranging powers New anti-government protests have begun in several Syrian cities after Friday prayers, reports say.
Hundreds of people are rallying in the southern city of Deraa and also in Qamishli and Hassakeh in the north-east despite heavy security, witnesses say.Activists have dubbed Friday a Day of Martyrs to honour the dozens of people killed during two weeks of protests.
President Bashar al-Assad said earlier this week that demonstrations were part of a foreign "plot".
In a speech on Wednesday, Mr Assad did not announce the lifting of emergency legislation as some analysts had predicted.
However, the president later said he had directed a legal committee to look into lifting unpopular emergency laws - in place since 1963.
Backing for Mr Assad's regime has also been in evidence, with huge crowds joining officially encouraged shows of support for the regime in Damascus on Tuesday.
'Locked in' On Friday, protesters took to the streets in Deraa, Qamishli, Hassakeh and also Latakia, eyewitnesses said.
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Worshipper in Damascus mosqueThe one who kills his people is a traitor”
The marchers reportedly chanted "We want freedom!" and "The blood of martyrs is not cheap!"
The north-east is the centre for the Kurdish population, who until now distanced themselves from the protests across Syria over the past two weeks, the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus reports. But in Qamishli and Hassakeh protesters chanted "Neither Arabic, nor Kurdish, we want a national unity" in an attempt to defeat any accusations of trying to make a Kurdish movement, our correspondent says.
She adds that in Damascus there is a heavy security presence around the main mosques - especially the Umayyad mosque where the first anti-government protest began.
Hundreds of security and pro-government gangs gathered around the mosque and later mixed with people praying inside.
The doors of the mosque were closed to prevent any protests, our correspondent says.
People are also reportedly locked in the al-Rifai mosque in Damascus, where some of the prayers chanted "The one who kills his people is a traitor" and "We are all Syrians".
"We fear being arrested, we only want freedom for those who are detained. They (the government) have security and buses waiting for us outside," one worshipper told the BBC.
So far there have been no reports of violence.
Activists and rights groups estimate that between 60 and 130 people have died in clashes in the past two weeks.
Government officials say the death toll is closer to 30.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12938756
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