Sudan’s military rulers abandoned a previously agreed road map for transition to civilian rule on Tuesday, fueling fears of a return to full military dictatorship.

The move came as security forces roamed the streets of Khartoum on the second day of a bloody crack-down on protesters that has left at least 35 people dead and hundreds more injured.

In a televised address, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the ruling Transitional Military Council, promised an investigation into the violence, but went on to reject further cooperation with the pro-democracy protest movement.

"The military council decides on the following: cancelling what was agreed on and stopping negotiating with the Alliance for Freedom and Change, and to call for general elections within a period not exceeding nine months," Gen Burhan said. 

Opposition leaders rejected the announcement and called on members of the public to return to the streets to bring down the military council. 

"It’s not the putschist council, nor its militias, nor its leaders who decide the fate of the people, nor how it will transition to a civilian government," the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the main groups within the Alliance for Freedom and Change, said in a statement. 

Sudan has been ruled by a 10-general transitional council since senior officers ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir following massive anti-government demonstrations in early April. 

Negotiations between the generals and the protest movement had produced a road map to civilian rule that included setting up a provisional sovereign council, cabinet and parliament and a three-year transition transition period before democratic elections. 

The SPA wanted a longer transition period, fearing that a snap general election would more easily be manipulated by revanchist elements within the establishment to thwart the transition away from Bashir’s dictatorship. 

Negotiations collapsed on Monday when the police and troops from the Rapid Support Forces, a militia implicated in atrocities in Darfur, used live ammunition to break up the sit-in protest in central Khartoum that had been the epicentre of the revolutionary movement. 

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors,  a group aligned with the protest movement, said at least 35 people were confirmed killed. Hundreds more have been wounded. 

The government blocked internet services, making it difficult to report on developments inside the country on Tuesday. 

But witnesses speaking by phone and writing on social media described bands of armed militiamen rampaging through the capital city, searching, arresting and beating anyone who left their homes to join the traditional outdoor morning prayers for Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan. 

"We gathered in our square as we usually do every year but the Rapid Support Forces and the police fired teargas and stun grenades at us and after the prayers the youth closed the main street by putting up barricades," said a resident of the Bahri district.

"Everyone is staying at home. If you leave your house you wouldn’t be able to travel more than half a mile anyway," said another Khartoum resident who asked not to be named.

"Normally if this was the day before Eid the shops would be full of families buying food or clothes for the children. But nothing is open. The city is at a standstill."

Going out to pray was seen as an act of dissent because the the military council had declared Eid would fall on Wednesday, not Tuesday.

The SPA had urged people to got out anyway to "pray for the martyrs" and then "demonstrate peacefully".

The Telegraph understands that key protest leaders have gone into hiding.

Sources close to the revolutionary movement said they now believe a combination of a general strike and mutinies by sympathetic soldiers could bring down the military council.

"I don’t think this is the end of the revolution. On the contrary I think this is the beginning of the real revolution, because most of the people now are very determined to overthrow or remove the TMC," said Osman Mirghani, editor of al Tayer, an opposition-leaning newspaper

"But I am worried most of all about a clash between the army and the rapid support. It could easily turn into a Libya style civil war."  

Many junior and middle ranking officers and non-commissioned soldiers are believed to be sympathetic to the revolution and hostile to the Rapid Support Forces and their commander, Lt Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.   

Lt Gen Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, is deputy head of the military council. His troops effectively control central Khartoum and a counter-coup by pro-revolutionary soldiers would likely lead to fierce fighting.     

There were also reports that troops from the National Intelligence and Security Service were involved in Monday’s violence. The NISS, which is loyal to a powerful Major General called Salah Ghosh, forms a third armed faction that could complicate a civil conflict. 

The UN Security Council was due to discuss Sudan at closed doors meeting called by Britain and Germany yesterday evening. 

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, blamed the generals for an "outrageous" crackdown. John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, called it "abhorrent" and demanded the TMC hand over to a civilian administration. 

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the excessive use of force and called for an independent investigation. But key regional players avoided condemning the generals, fueling suspicions among pro-revolutionary Sudanese that  they offered a green-light to the crackdown. 

Egypt called for "calm and restraint". The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which along with Sauid Arabia has extended emergency military support to the military government, said it hoped that dialogue would prevail.  

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