Heavy Security In Cairo Ahead Of Planned Protests

Egyptian security forces have been deployed across the capital in anticipation of protests planned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Friday.

An Islamist alliance, the Pro-Legitimacy and Anti-Coup Coalition, has called on its supporters to take to the streets on Friday in solidarity with protesting university students angered by the killing of their peers during clashes with security forces.

Armoured vehicles and barbed wire fences were deployed near downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square and at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in the eastern district of Heliopolis, as well as the notorious Rabaa Al-Adawiya square, where a Brotherhood led sit-in was violently dispersed in August.

Since the beginning of the academic year in September, Egyptian universities have been at the heart of the unrest gripping the country since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in early July. Pro-Morsi students have organised near-daily protests to call for his reinstatement and denounce the arrest of fellow students in similar demonstrations.

Two students from Cairo University and Al-Azhar University were killed during clashes between students and police in November. Cairo University blamed police for the death of Mohamed Reda, a student at its faculty of engineering, and suspended classes early due to the precarious security situation.

Source : Ahram