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CAIRO – Supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi pledged yesterday to press ahead with their protests, a day after bloody clashes at a Cairo sit-in killed at least 72 people.Sporadic violence was reported nationwide overnight, including in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.
Saturday’s violence in the capital drew international and domestic condemnation, including from Washington, a key backer of the Egyptian army.
Following the clashes near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque where Morsi loyalists have been camped out for weeks, the interior minister pledged to disperse the protests “soon”.
But the violence and the warning did not appear to have thinned the ranks at the Cairo demonstration, where a core group of several thousand protesters remained.
And Gehad El-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said demonstrators were angry but “hugely defiant” after Saturday’s deaths.
“There are feelings of agony and anger, but also a very strong feeling of determination,” he said.
“People are hugely defiant,” he added.
“For us, if we die, we meet our creator and we did so for a just cause … Either we die or we succeed.”
At Rabaa al-Adawiya, hundreds of protesters at a time staged mini demonstrations to keep the mood buoyant.
“On January 2011, (former president) Hosni Mubarak was strong, but he fell in a peaceful way,” said Khaled Khalil, a sociology professor at the protest.
“God willing, Sisi will fall in the same peaceful way,” he added, referring to army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup that ousted Morsi.
The violence early on Saturday was the bloodiest incident since Morsi’s 3 July ouster following huge demonstrations against his rule.
The violence also prompted domestic criticism, with Vice-President Mohamed El Baradei, a former opposition activist who joined the transitional government, denouncing “excessive use of force” by the authorities.
The head of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s top Sunni Muslim authority, also condemned the violence, calling for an “urgent judicial investigation”.
Morsi, elected after the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak, is being held in custody.
He is accused of “premeditated murder” over his escape from prison during the 2011 uprising.
Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces killed 10 “terrorist” gunmen and captured 20 in an operation in the Sinai Peninsula over the past 48 hours, state news agency MENA reported yesterday.
“Security operations carried out by the armed forces and police in north Sinai to hunt down armed terrorists… (resulted) in the liquidation of 10 of these armed terrorist elements,” the agency said, citing a security source.
Top leader of the Brotherhood Mohamed Badie blamed the recent bloodshed in the country on “haters of Islam” and the military, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported yesterday. “Those who have been killed are martyrs for the sake of freedom,” said Badie, urging human rights organisations to hold a clear position on such incidents.- AP
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