Wednesday, May 4, 2011

#Jan25 : The Battle of Imbaba 2011

Yesterday the families of Imbaba #Jan25 stormed the court room when the court decided to adjourn the case till June 5th, 2011 and the conditional release of 13 police officers accused of killing 6 protesters. This was the first hearing and the officers are being accused of killing 6 protesters and injuring 13 protesters on January 28th and 29th ,2011.
The families went mad and furious when they heard the conditional release rule , they destroyed the room form anger and wanted to attack the accused officers.
From the court room
Many people are criticizing the actions of the families , of course it is unacceptable but you have to understand these families fear that they may lose the rights of their beloved ones. These people fear that even after the revolution they will lose their just case against the police. You must know that the families of Imbaba #Jan5 martyrs have faced pressure from the police officers in order to give up the rights of their victims !!!
Now this brings memories to me , the memories of January 29,2011 and the batter of Imbaba 2011 when angry protesters tried to attack
It was a furious battle on January 29,2011 , too furious that you can smell the tear gas grenades on the other bank of the Nile in Zamalak !! I was in a car with my aunts and cousins when suddenly that sick smell which we had become familiar to appeared then came the ugly sound of gun shots and we found pillars of smoke in the sky.
Battle of Imbaba-1
We stood at the corniche wearing our gear against tear gas grenades from scarves and medical masks , we know it is Imbaba and we know that the police is part of this battle because of the tear gas grenades but we did not know what buildings in front of us were.


A man wearing a galabiya stood besides us to watch the battle and he told us what was going on. The people of Imbaba were trying to get in to Imbaba police station and State security HQ besides it there in order to torch it.
The man told us that we did not know what the Imbaba police station was , we did not know that it had 3 underground floors for torture and that he had been there before.  If you watch the footage I filmed , you can hear a man speaking about those people “in exile below” , it was direct reference to the torture chambers there.

Due to my work in my blog here I understood that what these men were speaking about , I understood that they were hoping that the people of Imababa won their battles against the police station.
Battle of Imbaba-5
Check the people in the street and rooftops 
We moved to another side to corniche where the view was better and here it was a clearer view , officers standing at the roof tops of the police station and state security HQ watching the CSF battling angry citizens in the streets of Imbaba and at the same time civilians stood at the rooftops and balconies to watch the police station.
Battle of Imbaba-2
Look to the rooftops 
Battle of Imbaba-4
On the rooftops again
Earlier that day I saw CSF vehicles heading to Imbaba in Nil street , they were the only working CSF vehicles I would see for weeks then !!
Those angry people of Imbaba were not criminals who wanted to torch the police station because they loved chaos , they wanted to torch it for what they have seen in it. The ministry of interior’s PR is speaking about restoring the relation between the citizen and the police force , well it should start from districts like Imbaba where police treat citizens as they were not humans in the first place. It should start with firing and cleaning the Police forces from those officers accused of murder and torture. These officers can’t be
Civilians were killed in the battle of Imbaba 2011 including a young man who was transferred to the Agouza hospital late that night to die after few minutes of entering from the hospital , as he was shot in his neck.
I can’t forget these scenes of Imbaba 2011 battle , I can’t forget this man who told us that he had been to the torture room in that police station and I was just watching it from Zamalak , what about the families of those who were killed and injured not to mention tortured !?

5 comments:

  1. Interestingly, and now all those who served in the army and police before the revolution will be judged?

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  2. I agree
    the people of Embaba have dignity they are genuine patriots have we forgotten they helped returning stolen goods from a big Department store few months back? They are looking to get their rights through the legal channel .The day they feel they are treated like human beings and not as a walking commodity they will use the language instead of physical self defence. Signed in defence of human dignity.

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  3. we need to understand that the Mubarak regime with all its corrupt judges is still in place!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, Zeinobia! If you didn't delete it, I can't remember in which post I wrote a comment on Western vs. Arabian crowd dynamics. :( so I will clean it up and re-submit it. D'uh! Keep up the good work. It was probably one of the Logan posts.

    ReplyDelete

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