EGYPTIAN spooks forcibly disappeared leading female activist Isra Abdelfattah from a Cairo street today as the government crackdown on dissent continues.

She was detained along with fellow activist Mohamed Dalah, each of them bundled into separate cars.

“After an hour, they released me at a highway,” Mr Dalah said, explaining that he had been beaten by security forces before he was dumped at the side of the road.

He explained that Ms Abdelfattah was taken to an unknown place and had not been released.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms said today that it did not know anything about her whereabouts.

More than 3,000 journalists and activists have been arrested following anti-government protests, which started on September 20.

Anger exploded after property investor Mohamed Ali posted videos on Facebook exposing corruption in the armed forces and the use of public money on President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s vanity projects, such as splashing out on huge presidential palaces while a third of Egypt’s population live below the poverty line.

High-profile activists are being increasingly targeted by the regime.

Bread and Freedom party activist Abdullah al-Said was also detained on Sunday.

Last week activist and blogger Alaa Abdul Fattah claimed he was beaten and tortured in an Egyptian prison.

According to Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram Weekly, his name “is in many ways synonymous with Egypt’s January 25 Revolution” that saw the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Ms Abdelfattah co-founded the April 6 movement in 2008. She was one of the first activists to call for a revolution against Mr Mubarak.

Since Mr Sissi came to power in a 2013 coup, 2,671 women have faced inhumane treatment, torture and degradation by Egyptian forces, according to rights group We Record.