Key organisers of last week's anti-government protests in Malawi have gone into hiding amidst fears that they will be arrested. "I will smoke you out," President Bingu wa Mutharika warned six organisers on Friday. One of them, Rafiq Hajat, told the BBC he had gone into hiding and was leading a "solitary existence". Nineteen people were killed during two days of protests last week against the high cost of living in Malawi. Mr Mutharika deployed the army in the capital, Lilongwe, the biggest city, Blantyre, and Mzuzu in the north to quell the protests. The president accused the protesters of committing treason. "If you go back to the streets, I will smoke you out. Enough is enough," Mr Mutharika said, after naming six of the organisers in a speech to policemen. They include Mr Hajat, the director of the Institute for Policy Interaction advocacy group, who told the BBC from an unknown location that he feared for his safety. "My wife and children are distraught. They are worried about my security and theirs. Nobody is staying at home," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "My mother had a triple bypass. She has aged 10 years in the last few days." Mr Hajat said the Acting Executive Director of the Malawi Human Rights Consultative Committee, McDonald Sembereka, was also in hiding while he understood that the group's chairman, Undule Mwakasungula, had fled Malawi. He said that the activists would not be intimidated and would organise further protests if their demands were not met.