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 A student activist said a supporter of the Brotherhood, designated
this week as a terrorist organization by the state, had been killed,
although a security source denied this.
State-run newspaper Al-Ahram said the clashes began when security
forces fired teargas to disperse pro-Brotherhood students who were
preventing their classmates from entering university buildings to
take exams. Protesters threw rocks at police and set tires on fire
to counter the teargas.
State TV broadcast footage of black smoke billowing from the faculty
of commerce building and said "terrorist students" had set the
agriculture faculty building on fire as well.
Al-Azhar, a respected centre of Sunni Islamic learning, has for
months been the scene of protests against what the Brotherhood calls
a "military coup" that deposed Islamist Mohamed Mursi as president
after a year in office.
Shaimaa Mounir, a member of the pro-Brotherhood "Students Against
the Coup" movement, said that Khaled El-Haddad died of a wound,
though it was not clear whether he had been hit by birdshot or
another kind of ammunition.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the student's account,
and a security source denied there had been any deaths.
The violence followed a day of clashes across the country that left
five people dead.
Supporters of the Brotherhood took to the streets on Friday after
the government designated the Islamist group a terrorist
organization — a move that increases the penalties for dissent
against the government installed after the army ousted Mursi in July
following mass protests against his rule.
The widening crackdown against the movement that was elected into
power after the toppling of veteran leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has
increased tension in a country suffering the worst internal strife
of its modern history following Mursi's ousting.
CONSTITUTION VOTE
The army-backed government appears bent on clamping down on dissent
ahead of a referendum next month on a new constitution, a step that
will pave the way for parliamentary and presidential elections.
Thousands of Brotherhood members have been arrested. More than 250
Brotherhood supporters were arrested on Friday alone using the new
classification.
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Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that the government's
designation of the Brotherhood as a terrorist group was "politically
driven" and intended to end all of the movement's activities.
"By rushing to point the finger at the Brotherhood without
investigations or evidence, the government seems motivated solely by
its desire to crush a major opposition movement." said Sarah Leah
Whitson of the New York-based rights group.
A conservative estimate puts the overall death toll since Mursi's
fall at well over 1,500. Most of those killed were Mursi supporters,
including hundreds gunned down when the security forces cleared a
protest vigil outside a Cairo mosque.
At least 350 members of the security forces have also been killed in
bombings and shootings since Mursi's downfall. The state has
declared them martyrs of a war on terrorism.
An adviser to interim president Adli Mansour said in comments
published on Saturday that he believed Egypt would not return to a
state of emergency even if the violence continued.
Authorities lifted the state of emergency in November, three months
after the army enforced the measures amid the bloody turmoil that
followed its overthrow of Mursi.
Mustafa Hijazi told London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the
designation of the Brotherhood as a terrorist group was not
political. "Instead, it is the use and application of existing
laws," he was quoted as saying.
Under the anti-terrorism law dating back to the presidency of
Mubarak, those convicted can be jailed for life. Authorities said
this week that the movement's leaders could face the death sentence.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
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