Supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi called for protests on Friday and Egyptians prayed there would be no repeat of clashes that have killed more than 90 people in the last week and left the Arab world’s biggest nation bitterly divided.
More than a week after the army toppled Egypt’s first elected leader on a wave of demonstrations, Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement wants people to join it on the streets to push for him to be reinstated, an aim that now seems in vain, reports Reuters.
The streets of Cairo were quiet on Friday morning, with separate demonstrations by Mursi supporters and opponents expected later in the day, the weekly Muslim prayer day.
Officials say Mursi is still being held at the Republican Guard compound in Cairo, where troops killed 53 Islamist protesters on Monday in a clash that intensified anger his allies already felt at the military’s decision to oust him.
Four members of the security forces were also killed in a battle the military says was started by terrorists. Mursi’s supporters call the incident a “massacre” and say those who died were praying peacefully when troops opened fire.
Many of Egypt’s 84 million people have been shocked by the shootings, graphic images of which have appeared on state and private news channels and social media. The incident came just three days after 35 people were killed in clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators across the country.
“It’s a very hard time for Egyptians, to see footage of blood and violence during the holy month of Ramadan, and everyone I speak to says the same thing,” said Fateh Ali, a 54-year-old civil servant in Cairo.
“I really hope the situation gets resolved soon. I don’t think we can afford this economically or psychologically.”
The Brotherhood believes it is the victim of a brutal military crackdown, evoking memories of when it was suppressed under longtime autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in a popular uprising in 2011.
But many of its opponents blame Islamists for the violence, and some have little sympathy for demonstrators who died, underlining how deep the fissures in Egyptian society are.
The unrest has also raised fear over security in the lawless Sinai peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. One Egyptian policeman was killed and another wounded early on Friday when militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at checkpoints in the Sinai town of El Arish.
Egyptian state media said police arrested three Palestinian militants conducting attacks in Sinai.
Outside the Rabaa Adawiya mosque in northeastern Cairo, thousands of Brotherhood supporters gathered late on Thursday to mourn the dead in Monday’s violence, the deadliest since Mubarak was toppled apart from a 2012 football stadium riot.
Women wailed and men cried as they watched a large screen showing graphic footage of hospital scenes immediately after the shooting, with corpses on the floor and medics struggling to cope with the number of bloodied casualties being carried in.
Hundreds of Egyptian flags fluttered in the evening breeze. Songs of defiance were sung.
