Muslim Brotherhood calls for ‘uprising’ after killing of forty-two loyalists of Egypt's ousted president.

Egypt closes Freedom and Justice Party HQ over weapons find


Brotherhood's political arm, Freedom and Justice Party, calls for ‘uprising’ after killing of forty-two loyalists of Egypt's ousted president.


CAIRO - Egypt's prosecution ordered the closure of the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party after police found weapons inside it on Monday, a security official said.

Police found "flammable liquid, knives and arms to be used against the June 30 protests," the official said, in reference to demonstrations that saw millions take to the streets to demand the resignation of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Forty-two loyalists of Egypt's ousted president were killed on Monday while demonstrating against last week's military coup, triggering an Islamist uprising call and dashing the army's hopes for an interim civilian administration.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led demonstrations against the overthrow of Morsi last Wednesday, said its supporters were "massacred" when police and troops fired on them during dawn prayers outside an elite army headquarters in Cairo.

The military blamed "terrorists" while witnesses, including Brotherhood supporters at the scene, said that the armed forces fired only tear gas and warning shots and that "thugs" in civilian clothes had carried out the deadly shooting.

Prominent liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei called for an independent inquiry into the bloodshed. Turkey strongly condemned the killings.

The conservative Islamist Al-Nur party, which won almost a quarter of votes in a 2011 parliamentary election and had given its support to the army's overthrow of Morsi, said it was pulling out of talks on a new government in response to the "massacre".

The bloodshed happened outside the headquarters of the elite Republican Guard, whom the Brotherhood accuses of betraying Morsi.

See also: Egypt on brink of civil war: Muslim Brotherhood calls for 'uprising'