CAIRO—Egyptian security forces fought pitched street battles with dozens of university students outside their Cairo campus Monday, firing tear gas to disperse rock-throwing protesters and prevent their rally from reaching the nearby defense ministry.
Security officials said 25 students were arrested for blocking traffic. A security official said one was carrying shotgun ammunition and a tear gas canister, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Dozens of students pelted the forces with rocks, some picking up tear gas canisters and lobbing them back. Students, some wearing face masks, used metal bars and garbage cans to build barricades. The students were demonstrating Monday outside Ain Shams University in eastern Cairo as part of a spreading protest movement in universities against the current authorities.
Supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi have been staging near-daily protests since his removal from office in July, concentrating lately on universities. The protests have often ended in violence, with police using tear gas, water cannons and shotguns to disperse demonstrators. Protests have intensified in the Islamic Al-Azhar University and the prestigious University of Cairo.
In response to the steady protests, authorities have passed a highly criticized law banning rallies without prior permits from authorities. It has caused an outcry from non-Islamist youth groups – many of whom were at the forefront of the 2011 uprising that forced longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power, as well as protests against Morsi and the military.
Authorities arrested two dozen of the non-Islamist protesters, including prominent activists, and have sent them to trial for violating the law by protesting it without prior permits in a sign they have little tolerance for any dissent.
In defiance of the law, hundreds of activists rallied Monday near Tahrir Square to commemorate bloody clashes between anti-military protesters and security forces two years ago when at least 17 protesters were killed. The demonstrators, largely secular and liberal groups, marched to the Cabinet building, where the clashes took place in December 2011, demanding that officials and police in charge at the time be brought to trial. The protesters asked for no prior permit for their rally, and authorities didn’t confront them.
