Repeated threats of a bloody crackdown on protesters against Egypt’s military junta stalled over the past week over the reality that such a move would be particularly unseemly during the post Ramadan holiday Eid al-Fitr.
Monday is the day though, according to officials who say that the police are planning major operations to end the anti-coup rallies beginning at dawn, when they will surround the sit-in camps around the capital city of Cairo.
In a little over a month since the coup, Egypt’s police have already shown how they end sit-in protests, conducting two major massacres in Cairo that involved surrounding camps and shooting at everyone within. The last time they killed 120 and wounded 4,500.
That’s the casualty toll from a crackdown on just one sit-in camp. If the junta indeed decides to move wholesale against protesters citywide, the situation will almost certainly spiral out of control in short order.