Clashes broke out between security forces and hundreds of Al-Azhar students on Sunday after the students tried to march on Rabaa al-Adaweya Square.
An official source at the Interior Ministry on Sunday denied reports on the Al-Jazeera channel saying security forces had stormed Al-Azhar University.
The source said that about 3000 students gathered at 1 PM outside the main gate of the university and blocked Al-Nasr Street from both directions. He added that security forces talked to them for more than a half hour to leave the place, but the students continued chanting slogans against the police and threw stones at the forces. He said that the troops then used tear gas to disperse them. They were pushed back inside the university and the road was reopened.
The students were calling for the return of ousted President Mohamed Morsy and the release of students who they say were arrested during the dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya sit-in, Ramsis clashes and 6th October celebrations. Traffic came to a complete stop as a result of the protest.
The protesting students chanted, "Morsy is my president" and "The Interior Ministry officers are thugs," waved the Rabaa al-Adaweya slogan and wore t-shirts featuring the same slogan. They also carried banners opposing the army, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyib.
Meanwhile, dozens of Al-Azhar students at the Darrassa branch staged a protest to support Sisi and the 30 June revolution.
They denounced the position taken by the students who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and what they described as their call for violence.
The Interior Ministry called on students to pursue peaceful ways to express their opinion and to not disrupt public facilities or threaten the security and safety of citizens.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
