A road closed by demonstrators in Mouhammara, Akkar, northern Lebanon, after the disappearance of a local sheikh. (Courtesy of Michel Hallak/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Demonstrators blocked the main road to Mouhammara, at the southern entrance to Akkar, northern Lebanon, to demand that authorities work quickly to local Sheikh Ahmad Rifai, who has been missing since Monday night, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.
An emergency meeting was held Wednesday at the local headquarters of Dar al-Fatwa in Akkar to urge the population "not to spread rumours" about the cause of the cleric's disappearance.
The emergency meeting was called by the Mufti of Akkar, Zayd Zakaria, and held in the presence of MPs Mohammad Yahia and Mohammad Sleiman, both from Akkar.
Several religious leaders from the region, including those of different faiths, also attended the meeting, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA). Attendees of the meeting contacted the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Abdellatif Derian.
"[Derian] followed up the case himself with the security forces, who denied imprisoning or arresting the sheikh ... We ask the heads of the security forces to find him, as more than 36 hours have passed without any news of him," the religious leaders said in a joint statement issued after Wednesday's meeting, according to the NNA.
They called on the security services to trace the missing sheikh's phone and analyze data from surveillance cameras in the area of his disappearance in Tripoli.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak.