Nine people have been injured during clashes between Muslims and Copts in al-Galaa village in Minya, according to eyewitness accounts. Security services have arrived at the site and the victims have been transferred to hospital.
Ezzat Ibrahim, head of Al Kalema Center for Human Rights, said the clashes began on Saturday, as unknown attackers threw stones at a vehicle, in which Coptic female students were travelling. Their parents went out to check what was happening, when clashes erupted.
Ibrahim added that several villagers broke into houses and smashed the windows. According to him, extremists were trying to spark communal riots to ruin the compromise reached over building a church in the village.
Meanwhile, Coptic Christians in Maghagha city protested against “security forces evacuating a building that belongs to the diocese and confiscating its contents”
A Church source from Maghagha said that police stormed the building affiliated to the diocese, where religious rituals have been carried out since 2007, “although the building was considered to be among the churches that should be secured during Easter.”
However, security sources said the place was stormed for being unlicensed, which is why its possessions have been confiscated.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
