Prosecutors are interrogating 21 people suspected of involvement in violence that broke out at Mansoura University this week.
Fighting erupted on the campus Tuesday between members of the Free Islamic Movement and other students, injuring at least a dozen people amid protests that followed a student death.
According to investigators, those under questioning are from Cairo and Alexandria and belong to the Free Islamic Movement, an Islamist group that says it focuses on the application of Sharia, support for the oppressed and preventing Western dominance of Islamic countries. The suspects are accused of besieging the university administration building on Tuesday afternoon and preventing workers from leaving their offices.
They allegedly demanded the dismissal of the university president, who they claimed was corrupt. They were also calling for the student hospital director to step down and for the results of an investigation into a doctor accused of killing a student with her car.
The campus was calm Wednesday following the university president's decision to halt all classes on Wednesday and Thursday.
The coordinator of the Salafi Revolutionaries Movement, Mahmoud al-Shafei, blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and the Interior Ministry for the violence and attacks on Free Islamic Movement members.
“The Muslim Brotherhood youth left the FIM members on their own and left the protest. After that, a number of thugs assaulted the members of the movement,” he alleged.
He told Al-Masry Al-Youm a demonstration is planned for Thursday in Sphinx Square to denounce the attack on the movement members. He anticipated that another protest would be organized in front of the Interior Ministry “to denounce its practices against members of the Salafi movement.”
On his Facebook page, Shafie attacked the Muslim Brotherhood for their defense of the university president, claiming the group only defends its personal interests and does not care about those who shed Egyptian blood.
Edited translation from MENA and Al-Masry Al-Youm
