Several governorates witnessed clashes Sunday between police and protesters who are calling for civil disobedience in protest against the policies of President Mohamed Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood. As the violent confrontations between the police and protesters continue, policemen at several police stations and Central Security Forces personnel at several camps have gone on strike to demand better weapons.
Policemen at the Ismailia First Police Station went on strike on Sunday in solidarity with other striking policemen across Egypt.
The protesting policemen are calling for better weapons and living conditions, as well as for police not to get involved in politics, Al-Ahram reported.
The Ismailia security chief had been notified by his deputy of the strike, and security leaders went to the station to hear strikers’ demands and attempt to contain the situation.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said that police foiled an attempt Saturday to break into a police station in Mahalla’s Shon Square, in Gharbiya Governorate. Four policemen were injured.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the ministry said on Sunday that 300 rioters had gathered in Shon Square and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at the station before attempting to storm it.
The statement added that police asked the protesters to break up their protest, but when they did not respond police fired tear gas and managed to disperse them.
In other news, train traffic was restored in lower Egypt Sunday, according to National Railways Authority head Hussein Zakaria, after protesters ended a demonstration at the Banha station in Qalyubiya on the Cairo-Alexandria line.
The state-run news agency MENA reported Zakaria as saying the protest delayed 31 trains an average of two hours and 10 minutes, as demonstrators demanded the release of a detained Popular Current activist. Protesters burned tires along the length of the railroads, delaying train traffic across Lower Egypt.
The demonstrators, including members of the Popular Current, the Dostour Party, the Tagammu Party, the Karama Party and the April 6 Youth Movement, said they will resume the sit-in until the activist, Mohamed Emad Abdel Fattah, is released.
Meanwhile, dozens of Arish residents on Saturday blocked Assiut Street in front of an Arish police station to protest deteriorating security conditions and the proliferation of weapons, MENA reported.
The protesters set tires on fire and blocked the street to traffic.
A fight had broken out between a family from Arish and a tribe from outside it over a piece of land. Four people were injured with live ammunition in the clash and were transported to the hospital, some of them in critical condition.
Fresh clashes also erupted near the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel on the Corniche Sunday, after five hours of calm. Police and protesters exchanged stones and tear gas.
The protesters blocked the street opposite to the hotel, with security forces failing to stop them.
Two had been declared dead late Saturday and 46 others injured in the violence, according to Egypt’s ambulance service, which noted that one of the victims died of asphyxiation while the other received a birdshot wound to the head.
