The former interior minister Nabawi Ismail died yesterday in Dar Al-Fouad Hospital, leaving behind a remarkable history, as he played an active role in events that have changed the face of Egypt, most notably the assassination of President Sadat on October 6, 1981, and the so-called September arrests that took place before the assassination. Ismail was born in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar district. He graduated from the Police Academy in 1946 to join the General Security Service. Then he was chosen to join the State Security for his strictness and ability to access information by planting secret elements in the criminal organizations. He came under the spotlight in 1971 when he became the director of Mamdouh Salim's office, the former Prime Minister and Minister of Interior. At that time, he launched fierce campaigns against the black market dealers. Because of his experience in purging the Islamic groups, he was chosen for interior minister in 1977, when the government decided to face these groups fiercely. He then started a series of mass arrests of those groups, whose members he said cannot be graduates of Al-Azhar, as it is not an institution that breeds extremists. Ismail was sitting next to President Sadat when he was assassinated in October 1981. But then there was a drop in the security apparatus in his last days in office, as the Jihad organization on October 8, 1981, managed to storm the Assiut Security Directorate and kill 106 policemen and wound 150 others. Ismail then ordered Zaki Badr, who was in charge of the central region of Menya, and Hassan Abu Basha, the Assistant Minister, and Abdallah Kohe, the public security director, to deal with the situation. Abu Basha used special well-trained forces equipped with the highest technical support, and took a plane there to carry out the mission. Ismail was later chosen for deputy prime minister. During the whole term of Ismail as interior minister, the National Democratic Party won all elections by 99.9%. His last post was minister of local affairs in 1982.
