UPDATED: al-Sadr apologizes to PM Abadi over Wasit demos assault
Security forces disperse protests by Wassit University students against the prime minister’s visit.
Dozens of students at Wasit University protested Tuesday against a visit by al-Abadi to the campus and attacked his convoy, with police responding with air shots.
News reports said Abadi arrived to the southern province to run an ordinary cabinet meeting and made a visit to the university, where tens of students attacked his convoy and chanted anti-government slogans.
Alghad Press said the prime minister had to leave the campus from the backdoor, while his sentry shot fire in the air to scare the demonstrators away. It reported that 19 students were suffocated with tear gas fired by the troops.
NRT network said the protesters chanted a slogan which supporters of al-Sadr used during their demonstrations in Baghdad two weeks ago. The slogan calls for “totally uprooting” the government, accusing it of corruption.
Sadrists’ protests in Baghdad, which decried the formation of the country’s electoral commission, had left 5 dead.
Sadr has been a vocal political critic of the policies of Abadi’s parliament bloc colleague and former permier Nouri al-Maliki.
In a statement, al-Sadr said the assault on Abadi’s convoy was a breach against “the prestige of the state”, calling to “exclude al-Kout (Wasit’s capital) from peaceful protests.”
Commenting on the incidents, Abadi’s office called to keep students away from political battles.
Abadi criticized whom he called the “dawaesh” of media and politics, using an Arabic plural for Islamic State members or sympathizers. “Whenever we reach a critical stage and make victories, they induce troubles that negatively affect the situation in the country,” said the statement. “ In all world countries that become in such a state of war, demonstrations are suspended, but here, we secure them,” he added, urging protesters to remain peaceful and abstain from damaging public and private properties.
“Whoever has a problem with the prime minister, let it keep it with him, without affacting the country’s security and the progress of the battle,” Abadi said, referring to the military campaign against Islamic State militants in Mosul.