Egypt ruling military council began on Tuesday investigations for the deadly clashes which killed and wounded scores of people on Sunday, as thousands of people mourned the victims.
Egypt ruling military council began on Tuesday investigations for the deadly clashes which killed and wounded scores of people on Sunday, as thousands of people mourned the victims.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had tasked Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government to immediately form a fact finding panel to investigate clashes Sunday in central Cairo, which killed 25 people and left over 300 injured.
Violence erupted on Sunday after Copts protesting against an attack on a church clashed with military police as they set cars on fire, burned army vehicles and hurled rocks at police who they said used heavy-handed tactics against them.
Political and religious leaders spent Monday locked down in crisis talks, amid fears of widespread sectarian unrest, threatening an already fragile transition from the rule of president Hosni Mubarak.
Military prosecutors began questioning 25 people accused of involvement in the clashes.
RELIGIOUS FIGURES’ STANCES
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church led by Pope Shenuda III accused "infiltrators" of triggering the street battle on the Nile waterfront.
For his part, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the country's top Muslim official who chaired a meeting of religious leaders, urged the cabinet to swiftly issue a unified law on building worship places, in a bid to ease sectarian tension.
The cabinet vowed on Monday to look into amending religious laws which would give Copts more guarantees to freedom of worship.
FUNERALS
Thousands of people attended a service at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo late on Monday for the funerals of 17 demonstrators.
Live television showed the coffins being brought in a procession from the Copt hospital in downtown Cairo where autopsies were carried out.
Earlier on Monday, hundreds had gathered outside the Coptic Hospital, chanting against the military council and its head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Mubarak was ousted in February.
On the other hand, the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has called for a "prompt, thorough, and impartial" investigation, which "should specifically address the killing” of demonstrators “who appear to have been run over by military vehicles."
"It should also examine the role of the military and police officers in the violence," HRW said in a statement.
