Hundreds of Al-Azhar University Brotherhood students staged marches on Thursday to protest against Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announcing his candidacy for the presidential elections, chanting slogans against the military.
In response to a call by the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, another march by female Brotherhood students set off to Al-Nour mosque in Abbassiya to demand the release of their colleagues, and to the Faculty of Pharmacy to protest Sisi’s announcement.
Other Brotherhood students allegedly blocked Mostafa al-Nahas Street in front of the dormitories in Nasr City and flashed the Rabaa sign.
Security forces were deployed to the area and opened the street after a half hour.
In related news, Cairo University President Gaber Nassar blamed outisde elements, not the Brotherhood students, for the violence that has been taking place on campus for several days and the clashes with security forces.
“Those are people from outside the university,” he said. “They gather around the obelisk outside the university then join the student marches.”
Nassar said that he asked the Giza Security Directorate more than once to disperse those people and they agreed to follow up.
Meanwhile at the vicinity of the Defense Ministry, security forces fired tear gas canisters at Brotherhood students staging demonstrations on Thursday and blocking the Khalifa al-Ma’moun Street.
The students had started their demonstration from the faculty of Commerce in protest against violence on campuses.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
