Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Dostour Party and a leader of the National Salvation Front, bemoaned the violence that broke out between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and opponents Friday in several locations, while former presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail called for protests against liberal parties.
Writing on Twitter Saturday, ElBaradei said, “Violence begets violence. The tragedy of the nation will not be solved by violence. The regime is responsible for the protection of citizens and dealing with the causes of violence and its consequences.”
Abu Ismail, meanwhile, posted on Facebook Saturday saying, “It seems that the justified peaceful march to the headquarters of the liberal parties that drives the current events has become an urgent need, within hours at most.”
“If the siege of houses to demonstrate peacefully has become justified, as happened yesterday with the house of the president, it seems that peaceful marches [to the houses] of politicians and media personalities, who get off on fueling strife to destroy Egypt through their shows and words, has also become a necessity,” he added.
In his statement, Abu Ismail also rejecting leaving the Muslim Brotherhood “exposed to slaughter, burning and murder, [while] we remain as spectators.”
He vowed, however, that his supporters’ actions would be peaceful, and would be “identical to our opponents’ opinion on what is acceptable, peaceful and legal.”
Police guarded the Muslim Brotherhood’s Moqattam headquarters in Cairo Saturday and arrested six “rioters” who allegedly infiltrated the ranks of protesters on Friday, according to a source within the Cairo Security Department.
A day after clashes between opponents and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood rocked the country, including Gharbiya and Sharqiya Governorates as well as the area around the group’s Moqattam headquarters, conflicting figures were emerging regarding the number of injured. Head of the ambulance authority Mohamed Sultan said that 200 were injured nationwide, including 127 in Cairo, while state-run MENA news agency quoted the Health Ministry as saying 160 were injured Friday in the Moqattam area alone.
Businesses in the area remained closed Saturday, and debris from the violence was visible everywhere.
"We have already cleared away four burnt buses and three cars," Nasser Abdullah, an official charged with the clean-up, told AFP.
Hundreds of Brotherhood members, many of whom had been bussed in the previous day ahead of the opposition protest, were leaving the complex on Saturday.
Friday's violence broke out after opposition activists marched to the building guarded by police and Brotherhood members. The two sides pelted each other with stones, emergency services chief Mohammed Soltan told MENA.
Shots were also heard, but there were no immediate reports of gunshot casualties.
Police used tear gas against the protesters before the clashes spilled over elsewhere in the normally calm Cairo neighborhood.
Protesters captured and beat three Brotherhood members and also smashed up an ambulance evacuating one injured Brotherhood supporter and detained him, an AFP correspondent said.
The Brotherhood has seen about 30 of its offices across the country attacked in widespread protests against President Mohamed Morsy.
Well-organized despite decades of persecution under former strongman Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors, the Brotherhood was the main winner of parliamentary and senate elections last year.
However, its critics accuse both it and Morsy of mirroring tactics used by Mubarak against the opposition.
