• Youth
  • February 16, 2011
  • 5 minutes read

Egyptian Journalist Hails Role of MB Youth in January 25 Revolution

Egyptian Journalist Hails Role of MB Youth in January 25 Revolution

Under the title "Protesters in Bloody Wednesday clashes in Cairo’s Tahrir Square would have been slain but for the fact that young Muslim Brothers defended them", Journalist Bara al-Khatib in the weekly issue No. 120 of "Al Youm Al Sab’aa" on Tuesday, February 15, 2011. He praised the leading role of Brotherhood youth in defending the protesters of the January 25 glorious revolution.

 

In his testimony, the journalist said: "On Bloody Wednesday about 11:00 a.m., where I was helping a young man attached to a huge banner by himself on the rebels demands, and after a short time clashes broke out between the rebels and pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels and they rushed into the anti-government crowds, trampling several people and swinging whips and sticks while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters. Young protesters were able to use a subway station as a makeshift prison for the attackers they managed to catch. They tied the hands and legs of four horsemen and camel riders immediately after pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops of nearby buildings and hurled bricks and firebombs onto the crowd below. Young Muslim Brotherhood members engaged in defence while anti-Mubarak protesters chanting against them.

 

"The two sides pummeled each other with chunks of concrete and bottles at each of the six entrances to the sprawling plaza, where 10,000 tried to fend off more than 3,000 attackers who had besieged them," he said. Some on the pro-government side waved machetes, while the square’s defenders filled the air with a ringing battlefield din by banging metal fences with sticks. Protesters dragged some riders from their mounts, throwing them onto the ground and beating their faces bloody.

 

The pressure for demonstrators to clear the square mounted throughout the day, beginning early when plainclothes policemen climbed on top of October Bridge and asked them to disperse, where they began a violent attack in what looked for all like the corrupt system intended to end the whole matter on that night and the situation became even more terrible as snipers asked young people either to clear the square or they will shoot them. Ambulances rushed to rescue the injured as three people died and at least 611 were injured in Tahrir Square.

 

Al-Khatib concluded his testimony, saying: "I swear on my honor that it was young brothers who defended us on that bloody day, otherwise everyone would have been slaughtered."