COPTS BURY VICTIMS SHOT IN ISIS ATTACK ON PILGRIM BUS IN EGYPT
▶ Hundreds gather at town’s church to mourn, but also to express anger at ‘lack of protection’
Egyptian Coptic Christians yesterday buried relatives shot dead on a bus carrying pilgrims in Minya, south of Cairo.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed seven people on a coach carrying the Copts from a visit to the desert cemetery and monastery of Saint Samuel.
Bishop Makarios of Minya told The National that unknown assailants fired on the buses on Friday afternoon. On board were worshippers from Sohag and Minya.
All three buses travelling from the monastery were hit but only one was forced to stop, Bishop Makarios said.
A witness said that two four-wheel drive vehicles had chased the buses and stopped the third one.
“They shot at the first two but the drivers were not hit, so the two buses managed to escape,” the witness said.
Bishop Makarios said injured passengers told him that four attackers took part in the raid and most of them wore white robes.
Hundreds of angry Copts gathered in and around Minya’s Prince Tadros church from dawn yesterday under heavy guard by masked security personnel for the funeral of six victims.
The seventh victim, an Anglican, was buried on Friday evening in a village outside Minya.
After the bodies were carried out in white coffins bearing wreaths of white flowers, amid shouts of “with our souls, with our blood, we will defend the cross”.
They were buried in a nearby Coptic cemetery.
“We will not forget the promises of officials, including the president of the republic, that the criminals will be punished,” Bishop Makarios told mourners.
Members of the crowd booed as he thanked security officials. Many Copts accuse authorities of not doing enough to protect them after attacks that have killed more than 100 members of their community since 2011.
Friday’s shootings took place almost at the exact location where 28 Christians were killed by militants in May last year.
Church spokesman Father Boulos Halem said the dead comprised two women and five men. He said six of the victims were from the same family.
“We consider them martyrs and the may the Lord have peace on them,” Father Halem said.
At least 13 injured passengers were taken to hospital, Minya governor Gen Kassem Hassan said.
Riot police and armoured personnel carriers were at the crime scene and outside the hospital for hours after the incident.
In the morgue of Minya Public hospital, women cried.
“We are here to stand by our Coptic brothers,” said Mohamed Shabana, a Muslim and employee at the Ministry of Transport. “Whoever did this is a coward and is not man enough to come and fight men.
“They are only able to kill women and children. You see the crowd. Everyone is sad and crying. There is no difference between Muslims and Christians.”
Many young men expressed their anger about the of lack of security around monasteries.
“It is the same old scenario,” said Abanoub Nassef, a student at the University of Minya. “The attack happens. The police intensify their presence and then weeks later they disappear leaving the same roads unprotected.
“Where are the special forces and elite troops that we see on TV?”
Copts are a Christian minority who make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 96 million people.
ISIS killed more than 40 people in twin church bombings in April last year, and an ISIS gunman last December killed nine people in an attack on a church in a south Cairo suburb.
Egypt’s army launched a major offensive in February this year against ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula, where the group has waged a deadly insurgency since the fall of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, killing hundreds of soldiers and policemen.
The army estimates its offensive, “Sinai 2018”, has killed more than 450 militants, while about 30 soldiers have been killed.
Since August, security forces claimed to have killed 14 militants in Upper Egypt.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi offered his condolences after Friday’s attack.
“I deeply grieve for the martyrs who fell today by treacherous hands that seek to undermine the cohesive fabric of the homeland,” Mr El Sisi said on Facebook.