KAIROUAN, Tunisia: Tunisian security forces deployed in strength yesterday after Salafist movement Ansar Al Sharia called on its hardline Islamist supporters to defy a government ban on its annual congress.
There was a heavy police presence at tollbooths along the main highway from the capital to the central city of Kairouan where the Salafists have vowed to hold Sunday’s gathering, said correspondents reported.
Police were singling out for checks the private minibuses that ply between Tunisian towns, with special attention paid to men with beards, as sported by Salafists.
Inside the city, helicopters hovered overhead and police checkpoints were set up, while special units were deployed in the square facing the mosque which is the venue for the congress.
A local police officer, declining to be named, said: “We have taken all measures to ensure the meeting does not go ahead... We will not allow those coming for this congress to enter the city.”
Meanwhile, maps were posted on Facebook pages close to the Salafist movement locating the checkpoints and possible routes to avoid them.
Ansar Al Sharia had urged its supporters to travel to the venue in groups in a bid to get past police. “We advise our brothers coming to Kairouan to travel in groups and not to be separated because the agents of the tyrant are blocking most intersections and provoking our brothers by showing their weapons,” it said on its Facebook page.
In Tunis, large numbers of police vans and army trucks were visible both in the city centre and in neighbourhoods regarded as Salafist strongholds.
As tensions mounted, a US embassy travel advisory warned Americans against travelling to Kairouan.
AFP
