Update: Exams disrupted at Al-Azhar and Cairo universities

Security forces allegedly defused two bombs Sunday near the Faculty of Medicine at Al-Azhar university, according to the head of security Mahmoud Sobeiha.

No casualties or damage to the faculty occurred, and the police controlled the situation with the help of university security forces, state owned EGYNews reported.

In a presser, Sobeiha said that flares, hand-made bombs and other dangerous devices were confiscated from a number of students. He also disclosed Al-Azhar's plan to hire 940 security personnel to secure the campus.

The security official added that the exams of the Faculty of Commerce were postponed Sunday for several hours, due to clashes between students and police, suggesting that a new security plan would be implemented to facilitate the continuation of exams. 

Also on Sunday, students supporting the Muslim Brotherhood broke into the Faculty of Sciences building at Cairo University, disrupting the end of term exams, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. The students chanted against the Armed Forces and the Interior Ministry, as security forces cleared a way for them to pass through the faculty building in an attempt to avoid clashes.

A number of students destroyed surveillance cameras at the Cairo University Faculty of Antiquities, burning posters of head of the Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a protest later on Sunday.  

Earlier in the day, Central Security Forces in full riot gear stormed the university after pro-Muslim Brotherhood students began demonstrating, according to the online portal of state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

The protesters attempted to stop fellow students from entering buildings where their exams were scheduled, Al-Ahram reported. Students were said to have launched fireworks at police from inside campus, while security forces responded with tear gas.

By late afternoon, 32 people had been arrested, according to Al-Ahram. They face charges of vandalism, assaulting security forces, resisting arrest, and damaging state property. 

As clashes continued between protesters and security forces, some students stormed the exam halls in the female section of the Faculty of Engineering. The protesters tore up partially completed exam papers in a bid to force a halt to the exams, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Students who support the return of deposed President Mohamed Morsi launched a protest movement, Students Against the Coup, following his ouster in July. The demonstrations quickly escalated into clashes between students and police.

On Saturday, the first day of exams at Al-Azhar University, violent confrontations broke out inside the campus, leading to the death of at least one student. Khaled al-Haddad died after being struck in the chest and head by a bullet. 

Even before Saturday’s death, student activists had called for a boycott of exams, in protest against the student deaths and the arrest of dozens. But the university administration has remained firm in its decision to hold the scheduled exams, despite the worsening violence in the preceding days.

A fire broke out in the building of the Faculty of Commerce on Saturday, causing the deferment of the faculty’s exams to January 25, 2014. Protests are expected to intensify on the new date, as it falls on the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution.

The university administration insisted Sunday that the exams would continue as scheduled, and that security measures would be increased to protect faculty and students. The ongoing clashes have put the lives of students and faculty members in danger.

On Saturday, Tamer Hassan Ali, a member of the Faculty of Commerce, wrote on his Facebook page that he was being held hostage with other faculty members inside the university.

Ali said that people wearing masks stormed the faculty at 8 am on Saturday, broke windows and vandalized the building. He said that the assailants held him and other faculty members who were overseeing exams against their will, locking the doors as the fire spread through the building.

He said that after the faculty members managed to escape the building, they were assaulted by students outside. The students surrounded them and shouted insults, accusing the faculty of being responsible for the deaths of students.

Ali said that other students later rescued them, taking them to safety away from the university.

Osama al-Abd, head of the university, insisted Sunday that the exams will be held according to schedule, and that all attempts by protesters to disrupt them would be defied, MENA reported.