MINYA - Prosecutors in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya remanded in custody for 15 days 23-year-old policeman who opened fire on passengers aboard a Cairo bound train, killing a 71-year-old Coptic man and wounding his wife and four other Copts as authorities played down a sectarian motive for the murder. "Amer Ashour Abdel Zahir will be detained for 15 days for further investigations over murdering a Copt and injuring five others on board a train in Samalut station," a judicial official said. He added that Abdel Zahir was questioned and led by police to re-enact the crime as rail traffic was suspended for half an hour in Samalut, 390km south of Cairo Tuseday night. "The defendant is accused of murder, attempted murder and some other crimes. In case he is charged, he could hang for this crime," the official said. The attack by the off-duty policeman sparked a protest outside a hospital in Samalut overnight by hundreds of Copts, whom police dispersed using tear gas, leading Health Ministry to transport the five injured Copts to a Cairo hospital by air. "The five Christians injured are now receiving treatment in Nasser Medical Institutein Cairo. They were transferred by ambulance helicopter. Two are in critical condition and the other three cases are stable," said Abdel Rahman Shahin, a spokesman for the ministry. He added that the body of Fathi Mossad Ghatas, who was shot dead in the incident, was also transferred to Cairo. "The decision to transfer them has a medical dimension, but it also has political and security dimensions," Shahin said. The Minya crime late on Tuesday came less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 21 congregants outside an Alexandria church following a New Year's Eve mass. A security official said the policeman, who was arrested in his house after he fled the scene of the crime, said in questioning that he had felt "irritated and frustrated" because he was short on money. He did not say he specifically targeted Christians.Ahmed Diaa Eddin, the Governor of Minya, where Samalut is located, denied that the attack was religiously motivated. "It has to do with his personal mental state. It had nothing to do with the religion of his victims," he said. "He boarded the train suddenly and emptied his pistol."Diaa Eddin said that the suspect policeman tried to shoot two Muslims, who overpowered him as he had run out of ammunition. But a local priest said the victims had told him the attacker surveyed the passengers and singled out a group of women who were not wearing the Muslim headscarf. "The victims said he entered the carriage and he started looking at the passengers. He saw four women, sitting next to some male relatives, who were not wearing the hijab," said Father Morcos. "After he was certain, he raised his gun and yelled "Allahu Akbar," the priest said, referring to an Islamic phrase that means "God is greater".Copts, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 80 million population, complain they are targets of sectarian attacks and complain of religious discrimination.
