An Upper Egyptian gangster linked to Egypt’s most dangerous criminal threatened late Tuesday to blow up the area surrounding his house if police forces invade it to arrest him.
Ahmed Hamza, a relative and top aide to Yasser al-Hambouly, who was arrested late January, hung butane gas canisters on lamp posts and put others on the roofs of neighboring houses at his residence in Naga al-Gisr, Luxor, threatening to blow them up if police forces try to arrest him.
Several senior citizens from the village tried to ask Hamza to remove the canisters, which he connected with an electricity cable. Panicked villagers urged Luxor officials to negotiate with him, saying he is trying to use them as human shields.
A number of Naga al-Gisr residents told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Hamza had managed to team up again with the gang previously organized by his brother-in-law, Yasser al-Hambouly. They quoted him as saying he was ready to confront the police with all means possible.
Hamza deployed armed men at the village’s entrances and exits to check for intruders, and is contacting informants in other areas of Luxor to learn about police movements in advance, the residents said.
Sources said police authorities have approached the detained Hambouly to ask him to convince Hamza to halt his criminal behavior.
Hamza, 27, is wanted on several charges of murder and robbery. He has survived many police ambushes since early March.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
