Cairo: Fresh violence was feared as Egyptians on Tuesday converged on Cairo’s revolutionary Tahrir Square in response to a call for a million man march, threatening to derail the country’s first elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
Sensing widespread public backing after years of political wilderness, the country’s Islamist grouping Muslim Brotherhood has given the call for continued protests, demanding an end to military rule.
Four days of violence have already left 35 people dead as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) reportedly rejected the resignation by the cabinet led by interim prime minister Essam Sharaf and extended an olive branch to the protesters, inviting them for dialogue. Al Jazeera said the council was seeking agreement on a new prime minister before it would accept the resignation.
The SCAF has invited all political and national forces for an emergency dialogue to look into the reasons behind the current crisis and ways to resolve it, said an official statement. The Brotherhood, which is the largest political force in the country agreed to participate in the talks.
“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has called a meeting and we will participate,” Saad al-Katatni, secretary general of the Party of Freedom and Justice, the Brotherhood’s political wing, said. Simultaneously the government asked the Justice Ministry to set up a committee to probe the violence. Groups including the Coalition of Revolution Youth and the April 6 movement, which spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolution, called for a “million-man march” to put pressure on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to cede power to civilian leaders.(PTI)