• 01:03
  • Wednesday ,23 October 2013
العربية

Islamist protests trigger clashes at Egypt's universities

By-Ahram

Copts and Poliltical Islam

00:10

Wednesday ,23 October 2013

Islamist protests trigger clashes at Egypt's universities

Scores of pro-Morsi students in and outside the capital protested Tuesday afternoon, continuing a rocky start to the new academic year.

Clashes erupted at Cairo University between opposing students, after pro-Morsi protesters chanted anti-army slogans, state news agency MENA said.
 
Riot police were heavily stationed around campuses in Giza, south of Cairo.
 
Elsewhere in the country, violence flared between students at the Mansoura University in Egypt's Nile Delta, with some using fireworks and hurling rocks, Ahram’s Arabic news website reported.
 
Pandemonium reigned on campus between pro- and anti-Morsi students, leading police to fire tear gas over the university walls in an attempt to quell the violence, and driving some students to take refuge inside lecture halls after the gates were shut by security forces.
 
Sounds of birdshot were reported. Several students were injured from stone-hurling and bladed weapons, Ahram reported.
 
The exact number of injuries incurred as a result of the violence have not been confirmed.
 
Thousands of students from Egypt's ancient Al-Azhar University staged demonstrations on main Cairo campuses over the past three days, to demand Morsi's reinstatement and the release of fellow students arrested during recent political unrest.
 
Security sources said at least 43 out of more than 3,000 students involved have been arrested. Despite the arrests, Islamist students have vowed to press ahead with their protests, defying authorities and warnings by university leaders.
 
On Al-Azhar’s campus in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, tens of female students backing Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood staged a protest on Tuesday, flashing the four-finger Islamist sign and chanting anti-army slogans.
 
Al-Azhar leadership has been accused by Islamists of backing the army's July overthrow of Morsi, amid mass popular protests against his year in power.
 
Tensions have been simmering at Egyptian universities since studies began in late September, as authorities have cracked down on the now-banned Brotherhood movement, crippling their street activities.
 
Morsi and tens of senior Brotherhood leaders have been jailed on charges of inciting violence. Hundreds of other Islamists and their allies have been rounded up following a police raid on pro-Morsi protest camps on 14 August, which left hundreds dead.