Security tightened in Egypt ahead of opposition protests
Egyptian army and police are beefing up security across the country ahead of opposition protest rallies planned to commemorate the second anniversary of the overthrow of Egypt’s ex-President Mohamed Morsi, Press TV reports.
Plans for the demonstrations, which are set to be held on Tuesday, have prompted the Egyptian armed forces to deploy 120,000 troops around the country. Police have sent 190,000 units.
This comes as the Muslim Brotherhood movement, with which Morsi is affiliated, has urged people to pour onto the streets on June 30, with its spokesperson Mohamed Montasser saying that the day “saw Egypt turn from a scene of a promising democratic experience to one of mass killings, violence, and blood.”
The so-called Anti-coup Alliance has also called for “a new revolutionary wave until victory, and retribution are achieved.” The call for protests in Cairo’s main Liberation and Rabia squares as well as in sites in other provinces has been echoed by several other groups.
Morsi was toppled in a July 2013 military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the current president and the then head of the armed forces.
The Sisi government has been cracking down on opposition since Morsi was ousted, banning the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of people have been killed and more than 40,000 others are being kept in custody.
Violence ahead of protests
Meanwhile, in the latest act of violence in the North African country, a policeman was killed and 6 others were injured in the early hours of Tuesday when assailants attacked their convoy in Beni Suef Province, south of Cairo.
In a separate incident, two children were reportedly killed in cross-fire between the Egyptian army and militants in the town of Sheikh Zuweid in the volatile Sinai Peninsula early Tuesday.
Also on Monday, at least three Egyptian public servants lost their lives in a bombing in Sinai.
Velayat Sinai terrorists have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Sinai Peninsula. Last November, the group pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorist group, which is mainly operative in Iraq and Syria.
