An Egyptian Coptic Christian priest prays over the coffin of Fathi Ghatas during his funeral at the Mar Yohan church in Cairo. Ghatas was shot by a 23-year-old off-duty policeman who boarded a train near the southern town of Samalut and opened fire on passengers, killing a 71-year-old Coptic man and wounding his wife and four other Copts on January 11.
Angry mourners gathered on Wednesday for the funeral of an Egyptian Christian gunned down in an attack that threatened to exacerbate sectarian tensions, just days after a deadly church bombing in Alexandria.
Angry mourners gathered on Wednesday for the funeral of an Egyptian Christian gunned down in an attack that threatened to exacerbate sectarian tensions, just days after a deadly church bombing in Alexandria.Some 300 people attended the funeral of 71-year-old Fathi Said Ebeid at the Mario Hanna church in Cairo watched over by a significant contingent of police.
Ebeid was killed after off-duty policeman Amer Ashur Abdelzaher boarded a train near the southern town of Samalut and is claimed to have opened fire, also wounding Ebeid's wife and four other Coptic Christians.
"What more do you want? We are being eliminated one by one," shouted Ebeid's sister Yvonne, in tears.
"Some people want to get rid of the Copts," she said, reflecting a growing sentiment among minority Christians since a suicide bomber killed 21 people outside a church in the northern city of Alexandria on New Year's Eve.
The shooting came the same day Cairo recalled its ambassador to the Vatican, accused Rome of meddling in its affairs over its calls to protect Christians.
Egyptian authorities denied on Wednesday that Abdelzaher acted for sectarian reasons, contradicting claims he had singled out Christians.
A security official said Abdelzaher, 23, told interrogators he had felt "irritated and frustrated" because he was short of money. He did not say he specifically targeted Christians.
Ahmed Diaa al-Din, governor of Minya, where Samalut is located, denied that the attack was religiously motivated.
"It has to do with his personal mental state. It had nothing to do with the religion of his victims," he told AFP. "He boarded the train suddenly and emptied his pistol."
He said the man tried to shoot two Muslims who wrestled with him but had run out of ammunition.
But a local priest said victims had told him the attacker surveyed the passengers and singled out a group of women who were not wearing the Muslim headscarf.
"The victims said he entered the carriage and he started looking at the passengers. He saw four women, sitting next to some male relatives, who were not wearing the hijab," said Father Morcos.
"After he was certain, he raised his gun and yelled 'Allahu Akbar,'" referring to an Islamic phrase that means "God is greatest."
A judicial source said Abdelzaher had been remanded into custody for two weeks on suspicion of committing premeditated murder.
The attack sparked a protest by hundreds of Copts outside the Samalut hospital where the wounded were taken, and police dispersed them with tear gas.
A security official said police increased their presence in the area and were on alert for further unrest.
In Cairo itself, police broke up on Wednesday night a protest over the killing by hundreds of people in a district inhabited by rubbish collectors, mostly Copts.
Health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen said the ministry decided to send a plane to transport some of the wounded to hospital in Cairo, a gesture usually made for injured foreign tourists.
The decision "has a medical dimension, but it also has political and security dimensions," he told AFP.
The attack took place only hours after Egypt announced it had recalled its ambassador to the Vatican over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI it described as "interference."
The pontiff has repeatedly expressed his solidarity with the Copts and called on world leaders to protect them after the Alexandria bombing.
"Egypt will not allow any non-Egyptian faction to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext," a foreign ministry statement said.
The Vatican's foreign minister said the Holy See wished to avoid escalation of religious tensions in Egypt.
The Vatican "completely shares the (Egyptian) government's concern with 'avoiding an escalation of clashes and religious tensions,' and appreciates its efforts in this direction," a spokesman quoted Dominique Mamberti as saying during a meeting with the recalled ambassador.
Copts, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 80-million population, have been targets of sectarian attacks and complain of religious discrimination.
Last January, Muslim gunmen shot dead six Copts in the nearby town of Nagaa Hammadi as worshippers emerged from Christmas Eve mass. A Muslim policeman was also killed in the attack.
© ANP/AFP