CAIRO: Two Coptic Christians were taken into custody and ordered detained for 15 days following sectarian tensions in a town in the south of the country, a police official said Thursday.
The two will be questioned on charges of seducing a Muslim teenage girl and attempting to assault her sexually, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The two Copts were detained in Isna, 560 km south of the capital, Cairo, where Monday night dozens of Muslims went on a rampage following rumors of an abduction of the girl.
The rioters hurled stones and smashed windows of a pharmacy where they suspected the Copts forced the girl to have sex with them.
Police subsequently dispelled the rioters.
“The charges are related to sectarian tensions,” the official said.
Muslim-Coptic tensions are commonplace in southern Egypt, mostly over land or church construction disputes.
On New Year’s Day 2000, a dispute between the Muslims and Copts in the mixed village of Kosheh escalated into a clash with groups of armed villagers shooting at each other, leaving 21 Christians and one Muslim dead. Associated Press
