CAIRO: Local reports have suggested that former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi has called on his Popular Current party members to lay siege to the Shura Council, Egypt's Upper House of Parliament, as violence continues into the night, with tear gas and fireworks mixing as police and protesters clash in downtown Cairo and other cities and towns in the country. The Popular Current on Friday, according to Aswat Masriya, called on its members and the protesters rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square to besiege the Shura Council. In a statement issued today, the current founded by former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi urged protesters to head to the Shura Council to besiege it since it “lacks popular legitimacy.” Currently a concrete wall lies between the protesters in Tahrir and the Shura Council, but protesters were working towards removing the wall in order to reach the parliament. Dozens of protesters hurled stones at security forces stationed behind the cement wall in Sheikh Rihan's Street in downtown Cairo. Police responded with barrages of tear gas against the protesters. The protesters have gathered at the intersection of Sheikh Rihan's Street and al-Qasr al-Aini Street near the concrete barrier that was erected in November last year during violent clashes near Tahrir Square. Clashes erupted on Thursday between demonstrators and security forces in al-Qasr al-Aini Street after some protesters had attempted to remove concrete blocks from the cement wall in the street. Sixteen people were injured in yesterday's clashes according to a Ministry of Health statement. Activists and observers reported that protesters were hurling stones at police near a new concrete wall on the main Qasr el-Aini street leading to the square as police fired tear gas at the protesters to disperse them. It comes after clashes erupted on Thursday after protesters took down the same barrier earlier in the day. Egyptian protesters tore down a wall leading from central Cairo's Tahrir Square to the two houses of Parliament and begun clashing with police near the Shoura Council, or Upper House of Parliament. It came after small skirmishes between activists and police occurred earlier on Thursday on Qasr el-Aini street in downtown Cairo, spurring the military to erect yet another concrete barrier on the main thoroughfare. Riot police used tear gas in an effort to disperse the protesters near the parliament building. By evening, the military was already rebuilding the wall taken down by the activists. Medical teams and ambulances are now stationed outside the square as tension fills the air on the second anniversary of the revolution that ousted Mubarak. Many activists tell Bikyanews.com that the goals of the revolution have not been fulfilled and accused the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsi of usurping the ideas of the revolution to fit their own Islamic agenda. BN
