Some police officers have agreed to end their strike on condition government does not order them to intervene in demonstrations, strikes or sit-ins, according to an interior ministry source The police officers strike is declining, and does not include more than one percent of the total number of police stations nationwide, an interior ministry source told Ahram Arabic website Monday. According to the source, many police officers returned to the job on Monday morning, after telling officials that their work would be limited to protecting important buildings, and they will not intervene in the cases of sit-ins, strikes or demonstrations, and they will not get involved in politics. Egyptian police officers have been staging nationwide strikes since Tuesday. Their demands were first articulated in the canal city of Ismailia, when security forces refused to deploy in the nearby city of Port Said, where recent clashes have left hundreds injured and at least five dead, including security personnel. Some 8,000 police officers and recruits in 34 Central Security Forces camps in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the cities of the Suez Canal later joined the strike. Last week, an interior ministry official told Ahram Online that at least 60 police stations had joined the strike in several Egyptian governorates, including Cairo, Luxor, Gharbiya, Assiut, Menoufiya, Damietta, Mansoura, North and South Sinai and Mahalla, protesting their exposure to risk in clashes with demonstrators. Ten police stations in Alexandria also joined the strike on Saturday.
