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The Interior Ministry said 74 people died, including one police officer, and 248 were injured, 14 of them police. A local health official initially said 1,000 people were injured and it was not clear how severely. Security forces arrested 47 people for involvement in the violence, the statement said. State TV appealed to Egyptians to donate blood for the injured in Port Said, and the military sent two aircraft to evacuate serious cases to the capital, Cairo. A number of political parties called on the Egyptian parliament to pass no-confidence vote against the government of Kamal el-Ganzouri, a Mubarak-era politician appointed by the much-critized ruling military council. El-Ganzouri himself held an emergency cabinet meeting early Thursday. Essam el-Erian, a Brotherhood lawmaker, said the military and police were complicit in the violence, accusing them of trying to show that emergency regulations giving security forces wide-ranging powers must be maintained. "This tragedy is a result of intentional reluctance by the military and the police," he said. The trigger for the violence, however, remains a mystery since most of the attackers were from the winning team. April 6 group, which was among youth groups that led the anti-Mubarak uprising, accused the ruling military of collaboration in the violence. "Is it logical that the force that managed to secure parliamentary elections in nine provinces can't secure a soccer match where skirmishes among fans were expected," the group said in a statement Thursday. The organized soccer fans known as Ultras have playing an important role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and rallies against the military rule. Their anti-police songs, peppered with curses, have quickly become viral and an expression of the hatred many Egyptians feel toward security forces that were accused of much of the abuse that was widespread under Mubarak's regime. In the eyes of political activists, the long enmity between Ultras and much-hated security forces under Mubarak and under the military rule explains why the police stepped aside in the face of deadly brawl. In a statement signed by Ultras of Al-Ahly, the group said Thursday that the military council and former members of Mubarak's regime were retaliating for the Ultras role in the revolution. "They want to punish us and execute us for our participation in the revolution against suppression," it said, and vowed a "new war in defense of our revolution."
[Associated
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