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By Amrutha Gayathri: Subscribe to Amrutha's RSS feed | January 29, 2013 10:31 AM GMT
Clashes between protesters and Egypt’s security forces continued in Port Said while demonstrators defied President Mohamed Morsi’s curfew order in the cities of Ismailia and Suez, state media reported early Tuesday.
Egyptian troops thwarted an attempt by a group of gunmen to storm a prison in Port Said, CNN reported from Cairo. State news agency MENA reported six deaths in Port Said during daylight hours Monday.
In the port city of Alexandria, west of Port Said, protesters sat on train tracks, disrupting rail travel at the Sidi Gaber station. At least 38 people, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Port Said in the past two days, according to CNN.
In Suez, people marched towards the headquarters of the provincial government, subsequently clashing with the security forces.
In Cairo, where no curfew has been imposed, violence continued Monday with one man killed in gunfire near Tahrir Square.
State media said a total of 590 people were injured in violence across Egypt Monday, most of them in Port Said.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s main opposition alliance rejected Morsi’s renewed call for a national dialogue to put an end to the political impasse and street violence.
The National Salvation Front (NSF), a coalition including many liberal opposition parties and groups in Egypt, rejected the president’s initiative at a press conference a few hours before the dialogue started Monday, Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper reported.
Mohamed ElBaradei, an NSF leader, said before the opposition would attend any national dialogue, the president would have to appoint a unified government and take steps to amend the disputed constitution, BBC reported.
"The dialogue to which the president invited us is to do with form and not content," ElBaradei said. "We support any dialogue if it has a clear agenda that can shepherd the nation to the shores of safety."
The opposition demands include replacing of the incumbent cabinet with a national salvation government, setting up of a committee to amend the constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly and appointment of a new prosecutor-general replacing the one chosen by Morsi.
In a televised address late Sunday, Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergency in Port Said, Suez and Ismailia, the three provinces which have witnessed deadly clashes since the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution Jan. 25.
A court ruling Saturday, issuing death sentences for 21 people from Port Said for their roles in a football game riot last year, ignited further violence.
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