CAIRO: Egyptian activists and others joined together for iftar, the meal that breaks the Islamic fast during Ramadan, but were met with a military attack on Friday evening. According to eye witnesses and activists' statements, the military broke up the iftar in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, arrested a number of people. The activists said they were planning to leave Tahrir shortly after they had eaten the meal, but police and military police raided their tables and chased citizens down the street. Some activists said on the micro-blogging site Twitter that the military police used electric batons and sticks and even assaulted a number women. Egypt's national television, channel 1, said that police broke an attempted sit-in, which was vehemently denied by activists in Tahrir. “Tahrir is a public sq! We were NOT even challenging their overt presence, we were eating & LEAVING, not attemting to sit-in whn they hit us,” said activist Gigi Ibrahim on her Twitter account. Ibrahim herself was reportedly beaten on the head in the assault on the peaceful eaters. It comes less than one week after the Egyptian military used violent force to remove a sit-in by pro-change demonstrators. The attack, on Monday, left at least 100 people arrested and highlighted the growing divide between the activists and the military. All activists from that raid, which saw the end of the tent city that had been erected, have since been released. Friday's meal had been planned for days and the activists were clear in public statements that they were not going to start another sit-in, despite national television statements. BM
