Extremist group Ajnad Misr claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion at Cairo University on Wednesday in a statement the group released Wednesday night.
The group stated that it penetrated the ranks of police at the University’s campus to plant the bomb.
“With the help of God we have once again been able to overturn the criminals [security forces] that have besieged Cairo University,” the group said in the statement.
On Wednesday afternoon a bomb exploded in the vicinity of Cairo University. Six policemen and four civilians, the Ministry of Interior said.
The Ministry also stated that police forces arrested 12 students from the Universities of Al-Azhar, Ain Shams, and Helwan.
Police charged the arrested students with protesting and attacking campus security. The students were also accused of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The operation, the group claimed, came after the increased cases of killings and torture directed at university students.
“Despite their abilities, extensive resources and troops, God has helped us into their ranks and we were able to direct the bomb to explode amongst them,” the group said, adding that they were “careful to reduce the strength of the bomb so that its fragments do not reach passer-bys”.
Ajnad Misr added that security forces “have proven” that their “crimes against and torture of students are not a response to [terrorist] operations but it is a systematic violence that does not await excuses”.
Students Against the Coup (SAC), a student group created after the military ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi and which protests against on-campus police brutality, denied any involvement in the attack and condemned it.
“After the coup has been exposed to the world as it represses students, by killing, arresting, and expelling, the stupid oppressive regime had to go back the only thing it knows how to do and repeat,” the SAC said in a statement.
The group added that the explosion was an example of the regime’s technique to legitimise its own violence against students, creating threats in order to victimise itself.
Security forces have been present outside a number of universities in anticipation of demonstrations.
On 14 October, police forces fired birdshots at students during a protest inside Alexandria University. Omar Al-Sharif, a student at the University, died on Tuesday due to wounds he received from the birdshot.
