Egypt:Is Feb25 the Restart Button for the Egyptian Revolution? - Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

Yesterday, one month month after the 25th of January, the protesters went to Tahrir Square to celebrate and call for the toppling of the government that was appointed by the former president, Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians are starting to feel suspicious about the future of their revolution, and they are still not sure if the old personnel of the Mubarak regime, who are still in charge, could be trusted. Later at night, some protesters decided to sit-in and camp in Tahrir Square and in front of the parliament.

At night, things didn't go the way they expected though. Manal tweeted about the military police trying to evacuate the area by force.

@manal: Military police is beating and arresting ppl now in Tahrir Square now #jan25 Help us expose them.

Zeinobia compared what happened today to the first day of the revolution.

This is how it began on January 25th when the police forces attack the protesters at Tahrir square at night after midnight and this is why I am so scared now !!
The military police has attacked the protesters who were having a sit at Tahrir square and at the cabinet HQ at Kasr Al Aini street. Protesters have been chased and eye witnesses are saying that teasers and whips were used, activists have been detained. No one is allowed to enter there , journalists were not allowed to cover what is going on. There are reports that masked men with machine guns were seen with the military police , I think they were brought to scare the protesters.

Some users on Twitter on the other hand believe that the actions taken by the military police can be justified.

@anonymous_blank: They started chasing protesters out of tahrir, to avoid further melt down in economy!I agree violence not solution,but ppl stop camping [there].

@l0gicpath: Respect the Military and they will respect you back! Curfew at 12, then it is curfew at 12! peaceful or no shit.

However, Ahmed Zaki Osman and Zeinobia don't digest such justifications.

@ahmedzakiosman: We have the right to protest and for the curfew, people were having Tahrir as their homes despite the curfew.

Zeinobia adds:

I know someone will say that there is a curfew and I tell him that the curfew does not give the military to end the sit in by this shameful and disgraceful way. For 18 days the army let the protesters stay as they wanted regardless of the curfew.
Already where was that curfew on February 2nd when the thugs attacked and killed protesters ??
This is a dangerous escalation, unacceptable one too.

Finally, more reactions and videos of last night are still being released.

Update:
The Army issued an apology on their official Facebook page [Ar].

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.