on 8 march, zaghlul and three other members of the wafd were arrested and thrown into qasr an nil prison. the next day, they were deported to malta, an action that sparked the popular uprising of march/april 1919 in which egyptians of all social classes participated. there were violent clashes in cairo and the provincial cities of lower egypt, especially tanta, and the uprising spread to the south, culminating in violent confrontations in asyut province in upper egypt.