Some 500 Copts and Muslims last Thursday evening demonstrated in front of the police station in Nag Hammadi, in Qena, Upper Egypt, in the wake of the murder of two Copts from the nearby village of Bahjoura.
Some 500 Copts and Muslims last Thursday evening demonstrated in front of the police station in Nag Hammadi, in Qena, Upper Egypt, in the wake of the murder of two Copts from the nearby village of Bahjoura.
Awad Al-Assaad, a cement trader; and his 23-year-old son Saad al-Assaad were shot to death by the village hoodlum Ahmed Saber whom the villagers call “The Butcher”. Assaad had refused to pay The Butcher tribute money to the sum of EGP500,000, which he had demanded the day before.
On Thursday afternoon, the hoodlum, accompanied by several of his men, drove to Assaad’s shop. One of the men asked Assaad to hand over the money; when Assaad refused The Butcher went down form the vehicle and shot Assaad and his son who was with him in the shop, rode in the car and fled.
The Assaad family refused to receive form the police the bodies of their dead until The Butcher was caught; meaning that, until then, they were planning a vendetta.
Bishop of Qena, Anba Kyrillos, told Watani that he had called to the police authorities in Qena, and reported threats by The Butcher to several members of his congregation, but no action was taken. The Bishop himself was threatened by The Butcher once he knew he had been reported.
On Friday morning the Assaad’s received the bodies of their dead, conducted a funeralservice, and buried them, in the wake of the arrest of one of The Butcher’s men. But The Butcher himself remains at large.
Last week witnessed the arrest of another hoodlum in Upper Egypt, Ahmed al-Hanbouli of Luxor.