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Press Trust of India
CAIRO, 31 JAN: Egyptian protesters gave a call for a million people to pour onto the streets of Cairo tomorrow to put up a massive show of strength to force the beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak to leave the country by Friday.
Upping the ante to topple Mubarak, a coalition of Opposition parties, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood also served an ultimatum telling the powerful army to choose between “Egypt or Mubarak”, indicating that a decisive stage may be near as the death toll in the last six days of violence crossed 150.
Anti-Mubarak sentiments reached a feverish pitch, as thousands of protesters converged on Tahrir or Liberation Square ~ the hub of the protests in the heart of Cairo to make the call for a “million man march” tomorrow.
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The call by so called 'April 6 Shabab Movement' came as an indefinite countrywide strike gripped the nation paralysing all essential services, including government offices, banks and trading centres. As the oust Mubarak campaign gained strength, American and other world leaders ramped up pressure calling for an-orderly transition in the violence rocked country.
The 'Shabab' movement which has been formed of all Opposition groups and the leaders declared that the march would start from Tahrir or Liberation Square and was aimed at forcing Mubarak to step down by Friday.
On his part, 82-year-old defiant Mubarak told his new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to bring in immediate reform to stem the tide. His instructions to Shafiq were read out on state tv but had no discernible effect on protesters who vowed to continue their demonstrations until Mubarak steps down.
Terming the reforms as “too little and too late,” the protesters continued their sit-in at the Tahrir Square saying they would not budge till Mr Mubarak resigns, with indications that Egyptian strongman's fate now hangs on the military.
As the focus shifted on the influential army for a smooth transition of power, protesters enforced a countrywide general strike. Pro-democracy activist and Nobel laureate Mr Mohammad ElBaradei, who defied house arrest to join the protesters at the Tahrir Square last night, asked the embattled president to “step down today itself.”
“It is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today,” Mr ElBaradei said in an interview aired on CNN.
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Army positioned tanks around the square and were checking the identity papers, but were letting protesters in. Egyptian judges and scholars from world's prestigious Islamic seminary Al-Azhar joined mass protests
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THE STATESMAN
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The Statesman is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper founded in 1875 and published simultaneously in Kolkata, New Delhi, Siliguri and Bhubaneswar. The Statesman is owned by The Statesman Ltd., its headquarters at Statesman House, Chowringhee Square, Calcutta and its national editorial offices in Statesman House, Connaught Place, New Delhi. It is a member of the Asia News Network.
The Statesman (average weekday circulation is approximately 180,000 and the Sunday Statesman has a circulation of 230,000). This ranks the Statesman as one of the leading English newspapers in West Bengal, India.
