Riot police enter Al-Azhar University

Egypt’s General Prosecution granted riot police permission to enter Al-Azhar University campus on Wednesday. The university was the site of continued protests and clashes earlier this week.

A protest took place earlier on Wednesday, but according to a student there it ended at noon. The main Nasr Road was blocked at the time, but is now open to traffic.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that riot police have entered the university in response to a request by its president, Osama al-Abd, to “protect lives and public property.”

Security forces are now taking measures to combat the “escalating developments,” the statement added.

Students reportedly affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood “attacked the administrative building, and besieged the president’s office, destroying documents and firing rubber bullets and fireworks,” the statement said.

On Monday, clashes escalated between students and security forces outside the campus gates. Student union representative Abdallah Abdel Moteleb told Mada Masr at the time that tear gas, pellets and live ammunition were fired at protesting students both inside and outside the campus.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement Monday claiming that students provoked the violence, and police forces only fired tear gas in retaliation. The statement alleged that 2500 Al-Azhar students blocked traffic on Nasr Road and began throwing stones at passersby, cars, and police.

When the demonstrators failed to respond to verbal warnings, police forces fired tear gas to disperse them, and arrested two, the ministry said.

The Al-Azhar University Student Union also released a statement Monday holding Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb responsible for the violence, and declaring that they would continue their protest movement despite the clashes.

The students are protesting against the arrest of 40 of their classmates last Sunday, who were detained on charges of assaulting security forces, blocking the road, illegal assembly and vandalism in the course of demonstrations denouncing former President Mohamed Morsi’s removal from office. It is also part of an ongoing protest movement fronted by pro-Brotherhood students. 

In a statement preceding today’s protest, the student union vowed to use all peaceful means necessary to bring down what they refer to as “the bloody coup,” and said that today’s demonstrations would mark the beginning of an “Al-Azhar uprising.”