A People's Assembly (PA) committee said on Monday that police didn't fire birdshot at protesters on the fifth day of clashes outside Cairo's Ministry of Interior over the deaths of 74 fans during the Masry-Al-Ahly clash in Port Said on February 1. The National Security and Defence Committee went to the Ministry of Interior on Monday, in an attempt to establish whether birdshot had been used and to try and put an end to the clashes. But the head of the committee found no trace of birdshot inside the police cars parked outside the Ministry. The Speaker of the PA on Monday called on the Interior Minister to prevent the Ministry's guards from firing birdshot at protesters outside the Ministry. “Two MPs said that they had been informed of the shooting of protesters,” Mohamed Saad el-Katani, the Speaker of Parliament and a Muslim Brotherhood MP, was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. The Speaker also urged protesters to respect the law and not attack State institutions, calling on them to go back to Tahrir Square. He asked, during Monday's meeting, that the concerned MPs ensure this happens. El-Katatni said that Mohamed Ibrahim, the Minister of Interior, told him that police didn't fire birdshot in the vicinity of the Ministry. He added that the Legislative Committee has drawn up rules for peaceful protests and for the way police should deal with such protests, stressing that the National Security and Defence Committee will draft a law for the reconstruction of the police. Saad Aboud, another MP, called for coming up with a mechanism to protect the Ministry and applying the law to everybody who oversteps the red line. He also wants the Ministry of Interior to be purged of all the aides of the former minister, Habib el-Adli, who is now in jail. The clashes flared again, after the Defence Committee's arrival, when a young man hurled a stone at police, who replied with tear gas. The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that 13 people have died so far in the ongoing clashes between protesters – eight in Cairo and five in Suez. Hisham Shiha, the head of the Emergency Medical Care Department in the Ministry, said that the latest victim was identified as Mohamed Ahmed Qenawi (21). According to Shiha, Qenawi was hit in the neck and chest by birdshot. He was transferred from the field hospital at Omar Makram Mosque yesterday morning to Qasr al-Aini Hospital, where he died shortly after being admitted. The Ministry said that so far 161 people have been treated at the makeshift hospitals in and around Tahrir Square. They have been swiftly discharged, as their injuries, such as shortness of breath due to tear gas, and cuts and bruises, have only been minor. The police, who insist their soldiers are employing ‘maximum self-control', have used hundreds of tear gas and rubber bullets in their attempts to disperse protesters. It was reported that both sides hurled rocks have been hurling at each other. Activists blame the Interior Ministry and the ruling military council, which took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year, for failing to prevent the football violence. Ibrahim, the Interior Minister, has blamed the former chief of Port Said security for not securing the match well. In Cairo, police have erected several concrete block walls on roads leading to the Ministry, which has become the nerve centre for the violence. Ibrahim accuses protesters of trying to storm the Ministry building, which the demonstrators deny. Protesters and several commentators accuse members of the Mubarak's ex-regime – many of whom are now behind bars – of seeking revenge for their fall from grace by instigating violence in the past 12 months, including the Port Said events.
