Luxor (Egypt), April 17: Hundreds of hardliners and members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood have blocked railway lines and roads to protest the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor.
The protesters rallied for a second day Sunday in front of the governor’s office in the southern city of Qena and barricaded the railroad tracks, preventing several trains from leaving Qena and Luxor, a popular tourist destination.
Egypt’s ruling military council on Friday appointed 20 new governors to replace those who served under President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in February.
The demonstrators are calling for a Muslim governor.
Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority makes up around 10 per cent of the country’s 80 million people and complains of widespread discrimination that they say relegates them to second-class citizen status.
-Agencies