More blood in Tahrir Square four years after anti-Mubarak revolution
Cairo (AsiaNews) - At least 15 people were killed yesterday in separate clashes between protesters and police as Egypt marks the fourth anniversary of the "Arab Spring" uprisings that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Tensions broke out the day before in Cairo when activist Shaimaa El-Sabbagh was killed. She had arrived in the capital from Alexandria to criticize the lack of freedom that dominates under General Al-Sisi, charged with "burying the revolution" by establishing even more bitter regime than under Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi.
Instead Sisi justifies
the clamp down on demonstrations with the need to restore security and order to
the country, with an economy in shambles and with continuous attacks of
Islamist movements.
Yesterday in Tahrir Square there was first a gathering of Sisi supporters. This was followed by a march by hundreds of
secular groups, friends of el-Sabbagh. According to police sources, Islamist
militants infiltrated the demonstration attacking the police. Police used tear
gas and bullets, killing at least 15 people and arresting 150. There was also a
victim among the police and 11 injured.
Also yesterday,
a bomb exploded in the district of Alf Maskan wounding four policemen and a
civilian. Two suspected Islamist militants were killed by blowing themselves up
near an electricity pylon in the province of Baheira, on the Nile delta. On
January 23, a 18 year old girl was killed in Alexandria during a demonstration.
Al Sisi justifies his firm hand on dissent (Islamist and secular) as the only
way to revive the economy, crippled by the great mass gatherings of recent
years and the catastrophic management of Morsi and remembers that he was
elected with the 90% of the votes of the population.
But a few days before the killing of al-Sabbagh, speaking at the police academy, he admitted that there were errors on the part of the security forces, while blaming the protests for fomenting instability. Since the fall of Morsi, in July 2013, soldiers and police have killed more than 1,400 Islamist protesters and over 15 thousand people have been arrested.
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