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CAIRO: Egypt said on Sunday that it will use an “iron hand” to protect national security and will use anti-terror laws against those sowing unrest, following deadly sectarian clashes in Cairo.
Authorities will “strike with an iron hand all those who seek to tamper with the nation's security,” Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Gindi told reporters after cabinet crisis talks.
Gindi said the government would “immediately and firmly implement the laws that criminalise attacks against places of worship and freedom of belief” and will use anti-terror laws to combat those “threatening national security.”
The clashes in the working class neighbourhood of Imbaba, in northwestern Cairo, on Saturday left 12 people dead and 232 injured, state television said.
Among those killed were four Christians and six Muslims, while the two other bodies were still unidentified.
The two groups clashed after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church in Imbaba to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.
The country has been gripped by insecurity and sectarian unrest since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
Gindi blamed the events on a “counter-revolution” which the government has repeatedly said is being orchestrated by remnants of the Mubarak regime, for stirring unrest in the country.
“Egypt's people, the noble police and the great army are standing together today to foil the counter-revolution,” Gindi said.
He said that laws criminalising attacks on national unity “face severe punishment and can lead to a death sentence.”
"The government will be using the regular law, not exceptional laws and not the emergency law," said Gindi.
Mubarak had ruled for 30 years under the emergency which gave police wide powers of arrest and suspended constitutional rights.
“This government is a government that believes in the sovereignty of the law,” Gindi said.
Copts account for up to 10 per cent of the country's 80 million people. They complain of discrimination, and have been the targets of fairly regular sectarian attacks.
