Reponses from different political parties and groups have varied regarding the bloody violence that saw at least 19 football fans killed on Sunday.
The deaths occurred as security forces violently dispersed crowding amongst fans at the Air Defence Stadium in Cairo before the match between Zamalek and ENPPI.
A number of Islamist parties and groups highlighted security aggression to be the main reason behind the unfortunate events.
A Students Against the Coup (SAC) spokesperson told Daily News Egypt that police violence differs in strategies but has one objective, which is to abort all opposing voices.
Demonstrations have been a common tool of dissent and anger against the regime. Although divided to Islamist, pro-Morsi, anti-government, workers, and students, all have been dealt with similarly by the Ministry of Interior.
In many of its official media statements, the ministry has justified breaking up any protest saying that it included “elements of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
The SAC spokesperson added that the pro-government media, the judiciary, and the prosecution “usually accuse the Brotherhood of the any crime the police commits”.
“Even though, the people watch the violations of the Ministry of Interior, they use their propaganda machines to convince people that 6 April or the Revolutionary Socialists or the Muslim Brotherhood did the crime,” the spokesperson added
SAC, an anti-government student group active in several universities, has been staging protests since the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Egyptian authorities have referred hundreds of civilians, including a number of students, to military courts. The statement came following President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s decree expanding military courts’ jurisdiction to include anyone who attacks the state’s “vital” facilities.
Since the start of the academic year on 11 October 2014, over 300 students have been arrested. Tens more have either been expelled by universities or referred to investigation, according to Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE).
Al-Watan Party blamed the Ministry of Interior for responsibility of the “excessive use of violence” against Egyptian youth, calling for immediate prosecution of officers and their superiors.
Building and Development Party spokesperson Khaled Al-Sherif said the “massacre which the security forces committed against Al-Zamalek fans” means that the security forces are involved with “practicing oppression against peaceful youth”.
Al-Sherif added that “the rule of the coup annihilated the first democratic experience in Egypt”.
“The only solution to the current problem is removal of the coup with all its constituents from the political scene and the return of the army to its barracks,” Al-Sherif said.
Al-Wasat Party said that police violation is a part of ongoing trend by government to “kill hundreds of youth who only wanted to commemorate their revolution”.
Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Wafaa El-Banna said the incident and the usage of violence by the police are not different from what is taking place every day against revolutionaries and young people.
However, the pro-government Conference Party accused Muslim Brotherhood supporters of being behind the “deliberate accident after they failed to turn Al-Matariya into a terror spot”, according to its spokesman Mohamed Moussa.
He refers to violence that erupted in Matariya, a working class neighbourhood in Cairo. It witnessed major protests and clashes on the fourth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution that resulted in at least 12 causalities in the neighbourhood.
Moussa also blamed the Egyptian Football Association as it “didn’t think of the events in Egypt and the only thing they thought about was the return of fans to the stadiums regardless of the terrorist acts the country witnesses”.
He added that the events meant to take advantage of the political events the country witnesses as it happened one day before the visit of the Russian president Vladimir Putin to Egypt.
Putin arrived to Cairo Monday in a highly anticipated two-day visit to discuss bilateral relations with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
The Al-Wafd Party also expressed condolences to the families of the dead, but refrained from issuing a statement before investigations in the incidents are finished.
The party’s spokesman Bahgat Al-Hossamy said: “We are waiting for the investigations to be conducted and those who are responsible for the killings to be identified.”
