CAIRO — We had been detained by Egyptian authorities, handed over to the country’s dreaded Mukhabarat, the secret police, and interrogated. They left us all night in a cold room, on hard orange plastic stools, under fluorescent lights.

But our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams of pain by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night. In one instance, between the cries of suffering, an officer said in Arabic, “You are talking to journalists? You are talking badly about your country?”

A voice, also in Arabic, answered: “You are committing a sin. You are committing a sin.”

We  Souad Mekhennet, Nicholas Kulish and a driver, who is not a journalist and was not involved in the demonstrations  were detained Thursday afternoon while driving into Cairo. We were stopped at a checkpoint and thus began a 24-hour journey through Egyptian detention, ending with  we were told by the soldiers who delivered us there  the secret police. When asked, they declined to identify themselves.

Captivity was terrible. We felt powerless  uncertain about where and how long we would be held. But the worst part had nothing to do with our treatment. It was seeing  and in particular hearing through the walls of this dreadful facility  the abuse of Egyptians at the hands of their own government.