Student shot in anti-government Sharqeya protest

Adham Youssef
4 Min Read
Heavily equipped riot police troops were deployed to disperse the protests. (Photo by Hamed Abu El-Dahab)
Heavily equipped riot police troops were deployed to disperse the protests.
(Photo by Hamed Abu El-Dahab)

 

Security forces allegedly killed a university student named Hesham Hashem during clashes with protesters in the Sharqeya governorate’s Hedwa village on Friday, according to the Anti-Coup Alliance branch in Sharqeya.

The Ministry of Interior announced that it dispersed protests in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and Sharqeya.

The protesters, according to the ministry, tried to “block roads, assault civilians, throw Molotov cocktails as well as plant bombs”.

The ministry added that 132 suspects were arrested and no one was killed.

The Ministry of Health said that they only received 12 injuries and no deaths.

A number of protesters previously told Daily News Egypt that when protesters are shot in protests, families usually try to avoid going to public hospitals citing, the possibility of arrest.

In many cases, families head to private hospitals to produce the death certificate, but turn to government hospitals or morgues to produce a burial permit.

The Hedwa village was the place of residence for former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, and has witnessed anti-government protests since his ouster.

Security forces allegedly shot Hashem with a live bullet while dispersing the protests, Students Against the Coup (SAC) movement said.

The Anti-Coup Alliance (ACA), a group of Islamist parties formed in support of Morsi, called upon its supporters to continue protesting until 11 February, marking the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.

In statement late Friday, titled “Popular Anger Protest Wave to Continue Until 11 February”, the alliance added: “The will of the revolutionaries in Egypt cannot be defeated by the terror acts dealt by a failed coup government incapable of protecting the homeland, a government that actively kills Egyptian citizens every day.”

“Popular resistance tactics against the injustice should, as always, be decided by the revolutionaries in the streets and squares that are still chanting for the ouster of Al-Sisi’s and Mubarak’s gang,” the statement added.

Since the forcible dispersal of the pro-Morsi encampments on August 2013, a number of anti-government militant groups have claimed responsibility for attacks against police personnel, judges, public institutions, and security facilities. Most of the groups use social media to claim the attacks, posting videos of either assassination attempts or bombings.

The latest group to publically declare its activity was “The Revolutionary Punishment,” which claimed responsibility for some minor violence against police forces.

The group published a list of police officers, along with their contact information, claiming they were participating in the violent dispersal of the pro-Morsi encampments in Rabaa AlAdaweya and Al-Nahda Square.

The dispersal, which left hundreds dead, were described by Human Rights Watch as a “crime against humanity”.

Earlier in January, similar other groups operating under the name “Popular Resistance Bridges in Egypt”

They claimed responsibility for an attack on policemen in Mohandessin in Giza, announcing that they killed one and injured two others.

The page’s rhetoric included threatening posts to police officers, with the page claiming to have been monitoring their manoeuvres. They claimed to have been publishing videos and pictures of officers on and off duty, and of masked men planting homemade bombs in front of police stations.

Since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, protests and street clashes have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters and of police personnel.

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