How Sisi besieged Cairo on Friday of salvation?

Abdullah Hamed-Cairo

Ola (an Egyptian employee) left her smartphone in her home, only carried a rudimentary phone, bid farewell to her two children, recommending her mother take care of them if she fell by police bullets, and then proceeded to Moneeb Metro Station (south of Giza).

Ola came out in response to calls by the actor and contractor Mohamed Ali to demand that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi step down or be removed from the army.

She walked through the streets of Mounib after Friday prayers. She tries to show stability every time her horns ring with police cars carrying heavily armed soldiers, combing the streets and stopping young passers-by.

I took the metro heading for liberation, but the metro passed from Sadat station (Tahrir) without stopping, then Gamal Abdel Nasser station also stopped, which angered passengers, until he stood at the martyrs station (former Mubarak) down Ramses Square, to climb above the ground, and damage Only in every corner can the police be alert.

I was worried and pretended to be lost, so I asked a man who seemed worried about Faggala Street, so I was surprised that someone was hanging from the waist with a pistol.

She did not know where to go, and examined the faces around her, with lost features like her, the eyes meet with a puzzling question: Are you like me or from security?

Early abortion

A few kilometers from Moneeb, specifically in the church area of ​​Giza, there was a demonstration in which participants barely left the mosque after Friday prayers, calling for the departure of Sisi, until they were surrounded by police, assaulted and arrested a number of participants, according to human rights activists.

Major mosques in Giza, such as the Istiqama Mosque (Central Square), the Khatam al-Mursalin Mosque in Umraniyya and the Al-Salam Mosque in Al-Haram, which called for revolutionary pages to launch demonstrations, were besieged by police forces, and citizens who flocked to them gathered to gather when they found the police alone waiting.

A 40-year-old woman driving a modern car near the Khatam al-Mursalin mosque escaped nervousness because of the siege on her area. She screamed at the policemen as she pulled her head out of her car window, then sped off before they could stop it.

Sitting in cafes near public squares and demonstration gatherings puts the suspect on suspicion, as police patrols slow down when one of them passes, for which the mabahith officers look at the suspects.

"How is that! And all my friends have gone to the square?" Says Mohamed (a young boy working in a coffee shop in Giza), looking at the screen of a local channel showing Tahrir Square empty.

Muhammad did not know that his comrades who had gone to liberation had found all roads to him blocked, so they dispersed or returned.

The ambushes were spread over various bridges and bridges leading to the main squares.

About Tahrir Square The authorities not only forced the owners of the cafes to close them by direct order, but even closed some branches of mobile companies near the perimeter of the square, for a mysterious reason.

And toured the streets of Cairo and noticeably and intensively police campaigns consisting of modern police cars topped by cameras mounted on tripods, and microbuses accompanying police vehicles with masked highlights their muscles.

A terrifying adventure

Just as it was impossible to get to Tahrir Square, traveling between the Giza areas was a terrifying adventure.Microbes are being stopped by plain-clothed, strained, heavily armed people who scrutinize their eyes from inside cars, take down youths and check their mobile phones.

Taxi drivers told passengers from the Faisal area of ​​Giza Governorate that the end of the journey was the last street without crossing to Giza Square, as usual, according to security instructions to prevent demonstrators from gathering in the big square, which happened elsewhere in Cairo, according to witnesses.

Taxis disappeared from the streets to a rarity just before the afternoon, with ambushes spread and drivers telling each other about the danger of working this day because police withdrew driving licenses.

Activists traded warnings of snipers on top of some buildings under construction, which could not be verified.

Night demonstrations

As the siege intensified, frustration among regime opponents followed an unprecedented wave of optimism. As the sun set, the citizens of Helwan, south of Cairo, held demonstrations that lasted for hours before police violently broke them. Protesters.

Police and demonstrators staged a run-off in the Kafr al-Alu area, south of Cairo, followed by police patrols combing the area and arresting bystanders.

Security patrols continued until late Friday evening in different areas of Cairo, and inside the civilian people carrying "Shoum" (insubordination), likely to be thugs accompanying security patrols.