Clashes broke out at Cairo's Al-Azhar University on Wednesday between pro-democracy students and administrative security personnel after the former attempted to storm an administrative building on the university's campus.
Eyewitnesses said that unidentified individuals had fired birdshots outside the administrative building, while administrative security personnel used water hoses and fire extinguishers to disperse the students, who nevertheless managed to enter the building.
University administrators called on police to intervene, saying administrative security personnel were unarmed and therefore unable to contain the situation.
Student protesters, however, continued to pour into the administrative building, on which they scrawled comments critical of Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
Meanwhile, some female students gathered to welcome six colleagues recently released from the Nasr City police station in eastern Cairo.
The Al-Azhar student union said Tuesday that police had arrested the six female students as they went home after taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations.
The university's administration, meanwhile, expressed its "regret" that some students had violated the rules of peaceful protest and "misused" the freedom of speech.
The administration said it would take legal steps against students who violate university regulations.
-University police-
Meanwhile, the Azhar University Teaching Staff Club on Wednesday called for the return of police to the university campus to end what it described as the "chaos" caused by ongoing protests on campus.
Police used to monitor the entrance and exit of students, which had kept the lid on student protests. However, a court ruling before Egypt's 2011 uprising prohibited the presence of police on university campuses and called for replacing them with administrative security personnel.
The Azhar University Teaching Staff Club further called for criminalizing protests on campus with the stated aim of "protecting" universities from rioters. In a Wednesday statement, the club said violators should be punished by performing public service.
"The return of police to the campus has become an urgent matter because of present conditions," club head Hussein Uweida told Anadolu Agency.
"Administrative security personnel are no longer able to contain the chaos inside the universities," he added.
For two weeks running, Al-Azhar University has been the site of continued protests against the military's July 3 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader.
By Sobhi Megahed
englishnews@aa.com.tr
