Heavy security presence at Ain Shams University following student's death

Sunday 24-05-2015 AM 12:28
Heavy security presence at Ain Shams University following student's death
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CAIRO, May 23 (Aswat Masriya) - Police forces were heavily present around and inside Ain Shams University's faculty of engineering on Saturday, following the death of a faculty student last week. 

The death of Islam Atito, a senior student at the faculty of engineering, stirred controversy after the Interior Minister announced he was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces attempting to arrest him for killing two security personnel.

Cairo Security Director Osama Bedeir told Aswat Masriya that the university's chairman summoned the police on Saturday to control "riots" which erupted on campus by engineering students.

A member of the faculty's student union nevertheless denied that any riots or protests took part on campus. The student, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Aswat Masriya that the university cancelled on Saturday scheduled oral and practical exams and only held written exams.

"Only students who had exams today were allowed to enter campus," the student said, adding that he was denied entrance.

The faculty of engineering's student union unanimously resigned late Wednesday following news of Atito's death.

The union said in a statement announcing their resignation that Atito was sitting an exam on Tuesday when the exam hall was interrupted by the entrance of a "stranger" accompanied by a member of the faculty staff.

They asked Atito to head to the students affairs' office after finishing the exam, the statement read. It added that the "stranger" waited for Atito outside the hall and escorted him to an "unknown location" as soon as he exited the hall.

The Interior Ministry statement announcing Atito's death identified him as a Muslim Brotherhood member and a suspect in a shooting incident which left two policemen killed last month.

A high-ranking official at Cairo's Criminal Investigation Department was gunned down alongside a conscript on April 21 at the Helmeyet al-Zaytoun district.

Security forces were able to locate the hiding place of one of the suspects in the case, the ministry's statement read, adding that the forces raided his place at the outskirts of Cairo on Wednesday.

The student union described the Interior Ministry's account as "a story falsely and deceitfully fabricated".

Bombings and shootings targeting security forces have surged since the military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, following mass protests against his rule.

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