Egypt marks another grim anniversary under military rule
Egyptian activists lament the lack of progress since the clashes of November 2011.
CAIRO — It’s been two years since Mostafa, 22, heard a police officer growl, “Die, you son of a bitch,” before shooting, spraying shotgun pellets deep into his right thigh, tearing away at skin, nerves and muscle.
A rubber bullet grazed the back of his scalp as he fell into an alley off Mohamed Mahmoud Street. He was lifted into an ambulance with five other bodies, some dead.
At the hospital, he screamed in agony while a doctor scooped pellets out of the meaty wound. His best friend, Amr, 21, was there too, but in the morgue — one of more than 40 who died in clashes with police and soldiers in a weeklong street battle.
The clashes of November 2011 were a turning point that foretold a violent shift in battles to come. A face-off during which police and military officers blasted repeated rounds of tear gas and aimed for the head and chest with live ammunition, shooting to maim or kill, was “unprecedented in the level of violence” back then, said Magda Boutros, then-director of criminal justice reform at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
