Cairo, January 22: Making a public statement for the first time on the deadly attack on Coptic Christians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said that sectarian strife is threatening the country’s unity.
Mubarak’s comments have come at a time when Egyptian Copts living in the US and the UK are planning to carry out a protest march outside the White House and the British Parliament respectively on the issue.
“The criminal act in Nagaa Hammadi has bled the hearts of Egyptians,” Mubarak was quoted as saying by the official news agency MENA.
The president was referring in his speech to an attack by gunmen on January 6, the eve of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas, in the southern town of Nagaa Hamadi in which six Copts and a Muslim policeman were killed. Three Muslim men have been charged for the shooting.
–Agencies